


Nascent Song

by Anaya_of_Wolves



Series: Healing a Heartsong [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Explanations, Friendship, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Inspired by Music, Mentions the Ending, Minor Original Character(s), Musical References, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Original World(s), Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Sora (Kingdom Hearts)-centric, Unknown Illness, Waking up in a new world, daily life, slightly fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2019-10-27 18:41:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17772170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anaya_of_Wolves/pseuds/Anaya_of_Wolves
Summary: Xehanort's plan had rippled through the entire universe, leaving some worlds unaffected and some more affected than what had been expected.  Because of that, the keyblader who sacrificed so much for so many was pulled away from those he cared about to help fix a problem that had been caused by the fated fight.  But could this world, so balanced by harmony and dissonance, heal him?  Or will he end up putting more at risk with his presence?Original World created to continue where KH3 left off.  Post the Ending, so be warned about spoilers.  Also, ignoring the secret ending!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This had been an idea of mine for a long while. Well, not quite this. I had an idea of a keyblader based in musical theme, but I really didn’t have any real way to connect it back to Kingdom Hearts. But once KH3 dropped and based on the secret ending, well I found my spark. 
> 
> This series will be comprised of many original characters plus an original world I came up and still designing. So, please note that some aspects are learned and could potentially be ill-used. If so, let me know to correct. I am not a music major nor have any formal training in music. I am learning as I write this through multiple sources online.
> 
> Once more, this is set post-KH3, so what happens in that game and its ending will be mentioned in this fic and others like it. Take caution with that and read on.

 

  **Silence is the absolute**

_Sound is the rippling waves_

**_Together they create the harmony of Music_ **

**_And the Dissonance_ **

 

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

“Do you think he’s dead?”

Sound!  Finally!

“Rhythm!”

Wait, why was there sound?  Why was there sound now?  Hadn’t he been- Wasn’t he- 

“What, Beat!?  Really.  I mean, he’s just lying there in the middle of the walk way!  Not that I want him to be dead, but I mean, it’s weird!” 

There was hard ground under his body.  He could feel it scrape against his face and scratch at his clothing without forgiveness as he slowly began to come to.  Senses returned in a jumbled mess.  His ears heard sounds come and go, and his tongue tasted copper and then nothing of remark.  Every part of him felt numb and incredibly heavy at once, which confused his already confused body and mind even more.

Soon enough, Sora managed to blearily open his eyes, colors and shapes swimming into focus as he did.  None of the colors made much sense as to what they were.  He tried to focus on the two closest and largest blobs of darker colors that appeared to belong to the two loud voices.  But still he couldn’t clear his focus, blinking once and once again.

“Hey, I think he’s awake!  You awake, kid?” one of the voices said as they got closer to him on the ground.  The blob of color didn’t appear threatening at all.

With all his power and energy, Sora attempted to focus enough on the shape that had gotten even closer in his vision, but still it didn’t work.  He blinked again to try to clear his vision, but then it began to shift and go dark.  The pull of unconsciousness took hold of him like a wave.  He was passing out once more without a clue was to what was going on.  All of his energy had only managed to wake him up for that short moment.

“Great!  He’s...can’t bring…”

“Not leaving...Harmony...help!”

Nothing being said made any sense.  But that was the last sound he heard as he slipped under into the darkness of his eyelids and dreams.  

 

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

It was the same as before he had awoken.  Dark dreams, like a sea of darkness, threatened to swallow him up.  That was all his saw.  No matter which way he turned or focused on a light to brighten up the darkness, nothing would change what was.  Maybe he was stuck in the Abyss like Aqua had been, trapped in some deep part of the Dark Realm and away from his friends.  That scared him, made him cry out for the light of his heart.  When that summoned nothing, he focused on his connections.  The strings that connected his heart to so many that meant everything to him.  His friends, they would be able to lend him the power to light up the darkness.  When that didn’t work, a sad resign settled in as an anchor in his gut.  But there was one truth he continued to hold onto as his own power failed him, like he knew it would and had always would by himself. 

_They will find me!  I won’t be here for long without them!_

They would find him in the darkest part of wherever darkness that taken him.  That is what he knew in absolute right now.  Nothing else felt real in this moment as well.  There was no real “feeling” at all, no discomfort or feeling alive.  All he knew was what he did then.  Of darkness, of the floating, of being so very alone, of having to wait for someone to possibly find him.  All of that made the endless and vastness of darkness suffocating for him.  It surrounded him.  The darkness swallowed up his whole being, his light, and left him there alone.

Sora hated being alone.  Because he knew he was powerless alone.

_Please find me!_

Would anyone be able to where he was at?  How would he even know himself?  Was there a way out or was this the end?  Something about this felt, final.  Like someone finishing a book or story, but he could still feel once this “epilogue” was done with.  His worry and bubbling fear were still present in this encompassing darkness.

**Bah-dah...Buh-dah-dump-dump...Buh-...Buh-dump…**

There was something in the darkness.  It sounds like an off-key beat, an irregular heartbeat.

**Buh-dump...Bah-dump...Buh-dump-dump...**

Sora tried to listen to it, listening to it and wondering where it was coming from.  Why did it sound like that?  He could feel his own chest aching to the sound that didn’t quite sound right.  Where was this beating coming from?  Was it the darkness around him making this sound?  For what purpose?  He felt a sudden wave of sadness for that beating that continued to try so hard to right itself.

**Dump-bah...Dump-buh-buh...Bah…**

 

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

Sora awoke with a throbbing ache in his head and chest.  Both seemed to be pounding at different intervals that he almost wished would just line up so that the pain wasn’t so off-beat.  It hurt more that they were out of sync. 

As his eyes opened and adjusted to the light streaming in from above him, he saw an unfamiliar off-white ceiling.  His gaze then slowly moved to his right to see an unfamiliar room as well.  It was a bit of a messy room, with what looked to be music sheets and art supplies scattered about in equal tandem.  The floors, bookcase by the doorway, and desk closer to the bed all shared in being covered in such a mess.  He could relate to the messy aspect of his own rooms in the past.  Cleanliness had always been a real trouble to keep.  The music and art made him a little more curious as to who’s room he was in.

His eyes then shifted over to the left to an unfamiliar cityscape outside of the open window.  Buildings of soft colors and open terraces were all bathed in soft setting sunlight or the shadows of the alleyways.  It reminded him of Twilight Town, sans the beaches and none of the warm-colored buildings.  These were definitely more colorful.  He could spot people moving in windows or seated on some of those terraces with others.  All looked so content to be where they were.  Looking further out, a winding river on the horizon and just outside of the city limits glittered brightly.  It was breathtaking.  Further beyond, there was a dark green forest on the other side of the river bank.  It really made the blue river water stand out against it.

 A stray breeze rustled the windchimes Sora then noticed hanging in the opened window, seeing and hearing the bits of glass and beads strung together to make lovely, twinkling sounds.  Each one looked like it had been hand-crafted with care and love.

Sora sat up in the bed, letting the soft yellow comforter fall into his lap.  No more distractions of this room and the world outside of it.  He was somewhere.  Where?  He had to figure that out.  The last thing he had remembered was…

 _Kairi!  He had to save her.  He promised to keep his friends, all of them, safe!!_

_Then nothing but darkness again, a sea of it surrounding him and drowning him_

_A sky mirrored from above and below.  Infinite like the darkness before it.  Too bright_

_Chirithy saying something to him, something important to remember before they vanished._

_Dissonance and Balance_

_a way to heal..._

“Ugh, my head,” he groaned out after being briefly assaulted by so many thoughts at once.  None provided any clarity to where he was or the whys or hows.  He just felt in his heart that he was far, far from his friends, family, and home.  That was never good in his books.

He reached up to rest his hand over his heart, feeling its beat under his shirt.  The rhythmic thumping was a reminder that at least he wasn’t-

The door to the room opened up enough so that a face of a young girl, one who reminded him so much of Olette, peaked in.  She was about similar age to her as well, with longer brown hair that looped under both her ears and to the back of her head.  She honestly made him think briefly still that he might be in Twilight Town.

“Good!  You’re awake.”

She then leaned back as she yelled over her shoulder, “Melody!  He’s awake now!”

Sora winced at the loud noise and watched as the girl shot him a grin before she backed away of the doorway completely.

“Wait!” he cried out, struggling to pull off the sheets covering his legs and go after her for answers.  He needed to know where he was, what world, and how to get back to his friends!  He only stopped struggling when he heard another voice outside the room.  This one was getting closer and louder as it did.

“Now Harmony, there’s no need to yell.  We can hear you just fine, thank you.  Go sit with Gramma Orchestra.”

The first girl soon answered back in a resigned tone, “Aw!  No fair, Mel’!” 

Then a new person pushed the door opened a little more as she walked softly inside of the room.  If he had to guess, she could easily have been related to this “Harmony” with the same dark brown hair, similar colored eyes, and bronze skin.  She wore a long-flowing sundress that swayed with her movements as she continued to make her way over to the bed he sat on.  It made him feel an ache for Destiny Islands.  This “Melody” wore a kind smile on her face, one that made him trust her and feel a little less bad for being here and not with the people dear to him.

“I hope the trumpet blast of my sister’s yelling didn’t wake you up.  She sometimes has no volume control.  How are you feeling?”

Sora felt his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth.  How was he feeling?  Now that he thought about it, everything felt a mess.  An ache of sadness, a pinch of confusion, a relief that kind hearts had been saved, and a wave of pain that came and went.  

A confused look on her face morphed into a concerned one due to his lack of response.  He was ready to explain just as she turned away.

“Oh, should I give you some space-”

“No, no!  It’s fine,” he quickly told her, getting her to stop and face him again, “I’m just, so lost right now.”  He didn’t really want to admit it.  Because “lost” really didn't even begin to explain the mixture inside of him.  However, that didn't seem to put her off. 

Melody soon brightened up to help him.  “Oh, that’s easy if you are just lost then.  We are on Coloratura Avenue in Symposia-Operani.  Do you live nearby to here?”

“I, uh,” Sora began, not knowing those places and not knowing how to answer back that he wasn’t from this world.  Donald’s reminders of keeping the order had him keep quiet, though that might not do now.  Would it matter now since Xehanort was defeated?  Or did it matter more now?

While he wrestled over those questions, Melody sat on the edge of the bed, lifting up her hand and gesturing towards his forehead, “May I?”  

Sora quickly nodded, letting her touch his forehead and swallowing back a nervous lump in his throat.  He had to think of something to tell her!  Maybe this world had dealt with heartless before.  Maybe they hadn’t and have been isolated from Xehanort’s plan of-...of-...

A sudden bout of dizziness came over him.  First the black spots danced in his vision before it began to turn dark along the edges.  Sora felt like he was swaying from one side to the other, eyes rolling up into his head as he heard a loud voice say something to him.  But he couldn’t understand the words as he fell back.  Back into the abyss of darkness of sleep and dreamlessness.

 

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

He heard soft voices nearby once more as he came to from unconsciousness.  Maybe that was going to be a reoccurring theme for him.  Hopefully not, because he felt that lingering feeling hanging over him.  It wouldn't be good if he wanted to figure out what to do. 

At least these voices cared about not waking him up.

Sora sat up once again, noticing that now there was a glass of water on the nightstand next to the bed.  He reached over and took a sip of the room temperature water, letting his throat clear up before setting it back down.  

Once he was able to speak, he called out to whomever was speaking, “Hello?”

The voices stopped talking and stayed quiet, making Sora worry that they had left.  He began pulling off the comforter again, aiming to get off the bed this time.  _Before I pass out again_ , he thought as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.  No more black spots danced in his vision.  But there was also a lot less light in the room now.  He didn't need to look over his shoulder to see that the setting sun had completely gone down.  The room was only being illuminated by a lone lamp on the nightstand.

He straightened his gaze back forward when the door creaked open with soft footsteps against the hardwood floors.  Two people entered the room this time.  One was Melody once more, giving him a soft smile.  The other looked more like a doctor or healer, which made his stomach churn uneasily.

“Good to see you are up and awake.  Thought we might have to wake you up.”  Melody kept her voice soft, one hand fidgeting with something hanging from her waist cord.  She looked like she was trying hard to not seem upset about something.  That **really** didn't make the uneasy feeling stop.

“Oh, uh yeah.  Sorry about that,” Sora answered back sheepishly.  He ran his hand through his hair.  It was a similar motion to her own hand movements.  It came from the feeling of slight embarrassment that he had been obviously sleeping so much.

“Nonsense,” the healer interjected, waving a hand before they set their bag down on the slightly unoccupied space of the nearby desk, “It was better to get rest if you were feeling so bad.  Of course, I would have preferred those that helped you come to a _clinic_ rather than your home.”

Melody made a sour face behind the curt healer's back, before answering back in a more pleasant tone, “Yes, of course, healer Synchro.”  She then gave Sora an apologetic smile before the healer continued to speak, this time to Sora.

“May I do a quick check-up?” healer Synchro asked, still with their back to the teen.  Their rummaging produced a stethoscope from within, though it was also attached to a metronome.  A silver fork was in the healer's other hand as they walked over to bed.

“Yes, okay.  I don't feel as bad as before.”

Healer Synchro nodded their head once as they carefully put down their instruments onto the bed.  “Well, that's a good sign then.  No physically wounds visible.  Is your head aching in anyway?  Nausea or ill feeling?”  Sora shook his head.  He didn't really count the lethargic feeling he felt, chalking that up to sleeping so much.  The healer then grabbed the stethoscope and place the flat piece against his chest.  “Can you hold it there please.”  There wasn't any room to disagree.  Once Sora held it there, the healer held the metronome at the other end of the stethoscope in one hand and the silver fork in the other.  “Hmm, can you hum now?”

That was different from previous doctor check-ups.  “Hum? Okay?”

He began to hum just as the metronome began to click, swinging back and forth.  But even he noticed that sometimes it would stutter on one side or jerk from the middle back to the side it had just come from.  That **definitely** didn't look right.  As he took in a deep breath to start humming again, the healer tapped the fork against the metronome.  The sound from the tuning fork sounded wrong, which Sora gathered even before he noticed both Melody's and healer Synchro’s pinched faces.

“I see,” the healer muttered as the stopped the metronome and took back the piece from Sora's chest, “Well, it would be recommended if you would take yourself to a healing clinic once you can, but I do recommend more sleep and to take it easy.”  They headed back to their bag to replace the instruments that had been removed.  Once finished and gathering up their bag, they straightened up to face Sora once more.

“Your heartsong has become a little more dissonant, which in turn has affected your health.  Not severely, which leads me to an acute bout of it instead of an actual attack.  Do harmonize yourself in the coming days, alright?”

Heartsong?  Dissonant?  Harmonize?

“Uhhh, okay?” Sora answered back, really the only thing he could say.  To question just what some of those words meant might risk breaking the secrecy of the worlds order.  However, it was his health and heart, which caused him to worry more if he was actually hurt.  Maybe a quick cast of Curaga would fix whatever “dissonant” problem he had with his heart.  He would just have to wait until they left before he could do that.

Both adults began walking towards the door, speaking between each other now as the healer Synchro told Melody, “Please keep an eye on him in the coming days.”

“We will.  Thank you for coming over.”  Then they were both out of the room once again.  Melody had shut the door behind her, which was good for privacy.  

Sora then held his hand back up to his chest, thinking of the spell, before casting it.  The green glow from his hand sunk into his chest, feeling the magic work its way through his body.  But that was all his felt different.  There was no real change in his state, or it did not feel as though anything was different.

“Did that do it?” he muttered to himself, lowering his head and sighing out.  Maybe not, whether or not it was his own magic failing or something that couldn’t be so easily cured.  Master Yen Sid or Master Aqua would know about that, but neither was here.  No one he knew was here.

His eyes drifted about the room once more, curiosity and cluelessness of what to do next driving him to.  There was little else to do, and he doubted he would be able to leave so easily.  The room looked, somewhat cleaned up from the last time he had been awake.  Maybe Melody.

Thinking of said woman, the door opened once more as she entered.  Sora wondered where the other he had seen, Harmony if he remembered correctly, was.  There was a soft but pitying look on her face as she stood next to him still seated on the bed.

“I do hope you can clear some things up, uh-” A rapid blush took over her face as they both seemed to realize that he hadn’t said his name yet.  “Sorry, I never did ask you for your name, didn’t I?  How rude of me.”

“It’s okay,” Sora answered back, giving her a soft, forgiving smile, “I kept passing out, so that’s probably why.  I’m Sora.  Nice to meet you, Melody.”  A quizzical look formed on her face from him knowing her name.  “The yelling, from before.”

“Ah, yes.  I am Melody.  I would have liked to meet you without having three teens carry you into the house.  But singers can’t be quitters.”  The idiom was an odd think to hear her say to Sora.  But she soon breezed past it to a question he hadn’t been ready to answer just yet, be it truth or story.  “However, I do want to know what you remember happened to you, Sora.  You appeared very exhausted and in the middle of the walk-way nearby, no less!”

Melody reached out with her hands to gentle cradle his as she pleaded, “Please, I want to help you get back home.  Well and alright.”

It was hard to think of a lie to tell her with such a voice begging for an answer he didn’t know if he could give her.  She continued to look at him with soft brown eyes that made him feel bad for thinking that he would have to lie to her.  But the truth, it wasn’t easy, wasn’t kind.

“It’s, a long story.  One you might, not believe me.”

Her hands squeezed his lightly as she prodded him more for such a story, “Sora, a heartsong isn’t so easily dissonant like yours had been.  That isn’t something you keep hidden if you want to get better.  So please, it would be the responsible thing to do to tell me how that happened.”

Sora sighed out at her reasonings, which were sound.  He then noticed a crease form between her drawn together eyebrows.  Before she could continue to prod for answers, he finally obliged her.  First, asking for a swear of secrecy.

“You can’t, just let me tell you what happened and let that be.  I don’t, what happened isn’t something I want others to know.  Not yet, or ever maybe.  Something bad did happen but probably not what you think or know of.  You might not even know this happened.

“Alright, I swear that I won’t tell someone else.  On my heartsong and all.  Just tell me the truth, and I will believe you.”

“I will.  This is the truth.”

Then he began to tell her the tale of how he came here.  Well, a more abridged version.  He mentioned that he had been in a big fight against someone who had wanted to destroy all the worlds, and that he had sacrificed himself to save his friends.  The last thing he remembered was saving one more, before he slipped away with the last win against the darkness.  Light had prevailed against it, and with that came the peace that hopefully those who he knew were finally getting to experience.  But himself, he hadn’t known that he wouldn’t have seen them do so.  All he had known was that he hadn’t expect to make it, at least not wholly.

By the time he finished, feeling a sadness welling up in his chest because he wasn’t going to see them again, wasn’t it?  Saving Kairi, he had felt the give it had taken to do that.  The younger Xehanort hadn’t lied about that.  If his heartsong was not harmonized, did that mean it would even be able to?  He might not be able to find his way back to his friends if his heart couldn’t be his guiding key.

“Sora,” Melody breathed out once he had gone quiet, looking at him with such wide and concerned eyes, “that is, that is a lot to take in.  It is a lot to happen to a young man such as yourself.  But what you say is true, then…”  Her hands let go of his, letting them fall back into his lap as she soon got up once more.  “Please, get some more rest.  You have been through so much.  You deserve it.”

Sora met her soft, caring look and realized that, he was glad what he had done to insured that no one else would fall into darkness.  If it might people like Melody didn’t fall into the darkness.  It made the pain in his chest, the longing to see those that meant everything to him, hurt a little less.

He gave her a nod back, which she returned, and watched as she headed out of the room once more.  So far away from home, but Sora felt as though he wasn’t really that far away from it at all with the light in these people’s hearts.  There would be a way back to Destiny Islands, to Riku, to Kairi, to the King and Donald and Goofy, to everyone who was waiting for him.

After laying back down in bed, his gaze drifted over to the still opened window.  The dark night sky was dotted with countless lights.  Stars that shown even in the darkest of nights.  He had looked up to them throughout his entire journey, knowing that each one was a different world that deserved to live in peace.  Maybe this was their gift back.  He got to see them all again.  The same stars, the same sky.

Sora shut his eyes as he let sleep carry him off again.  This time without a struggle or force, but a gentleness that allowed him to rest now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, a month long wait is so bad for my record. I had other things to work on and work that had gotten pretty busy. But now I am hopefully going to be able to focus more on this fic than anything else. I really want to see just how much I can write for it and to hear everyone's thoughts about it. I mean, I really hope you all enjoy the characters that I have created and added and the story. I know that typically OCs and the likes are not too well received in fandoms and I especially tend not to read stories about them. But I feel like these characters deserve their chance to be read by everyone else. So, I really hope that you like them all and their story with Sora's.

**The beginning was Silence.**

**As long as there was Silence, then there was nothing.**

**But Silence was lonely in its own darkness.**

**So, it created the light within that dark.**

**Sound was then created from Silence.**

**And together there was the Song.**

 

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

 **Bah-dump...dump-dump...Buh-buh-dump…**  

He could hear the irregular heartbeat again in the lonely sea of darkness.  Both felt more familiar now than it had been the first time he had experienced it last when he had been asleep.  He still hated the all-encompassing darkness around him, so the beating was respite from feeling totally suffocated.  The sounds and their source continued, though, to cause more questions than there were answers with its presence here.  He still did not know just _where_ and _why_ the beating was coming from within this abyss.  Without a sense of where he was in this floating nothingness, the sounds could come from anywhere around him.  All he did know was that his chest still ached with a unique pain when each beating and rhythm tried to beat correctly.

It was a song in the wrong tune.  

_...Or the wrong song for the right tune._

Sora felt himself jerk and recoil away from that invasive thought he had here.  It hadn’t felt like one of his own, even the depressing and despairing ones he felt here.  But he couldn’t help to feel somewhat, comforted, by the fact there was something other than him here, maybe.  As long as he was not alone, then maybe he had a chance to get back to his friends and home.

He tried to make a sound, and it resulted in nothing being made.  He could not speak, yell, scream, or cry out.  Nothing what he could imagine to do to make sound resulted in making any noise.  It felt like the darkness around him stopped him for making any other noise.  Only the beat of the mysterious sounds was permitted here.

Why did that feel like it explained so much but also nothing at all?

**Thump...thump thump thump...Bah thump...thump buh dump…**

Every rhythmic thumping of this unseen heart -since that was the closest thing that he could think of that could make these noises- left a mark on his form that Sora was slowly beginning to feel.  It didn't, necessarily, _hurt_ , like a blow or an attack did.  But he definitely could feel on this messed up melody was causing his chest to ache more.  With the familiarity came a dull sense of growing accustomed to this ache that he was beginning to realize was there.  It felt like a bruise.  This beating bruised and was still bruising him as it continued.

The bruising was concentrated the most above his heart.

The sounds were hurting his heart now; it was bruising his heart with every beat they made.

**Bump bump...Bah buh dump dump...Thump thump...Bah thump thump...**

Sora could feel a harsher sound now in the beating that added to the pain in his heart.  Soon that feeling actually turned into a true one, and he would have gasped out in pain if he could.  The pain wasn't intense or unbearable.  But it definitely reminded him that he couldn't easily escape this place to get away.  The pain was like his body was seizing up, constantly building up without a tense.  It hurt his back, his muscles, his everything.

His chest, mostly his heart, hurt worsted of all.

There was a unique plan in his heart from it.  This pain came from not the physical sensation of hurt or the emotional one, which he experienced both before here.  This felt deeper, deep to his core.  There was something intrinsically linked between this beating and his own heart.  Sora just couldn't gasp _what_ it was.

It felt similar to when he had been up against Master Xehanort in Scala ad Caelum.  When the man hit with the attack from the _X_ -blade, and his heart had nearly stopped.  But it kept beating only due to his pals...

**BAH THUMP...BUH DUMP…**

 

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

He gasped awake, pulling himself up to hunch over as his breath came heavy from his chest.  Sora sat there, panting and holding his tank top in his clenched hand, and tried to fight away the growing apprehension of fear in him.  This fear was born from the fact that he could and had felt some pain in him.  It didn’t feel like his mind was making him _think_ that he was hurting.  

He actually could feel the last bits of that pain before it slipped away back to wherever he stayed when he slipped asleep.

The pain from whatever dream or unconscious state he had been in slowly faded like a forgotten memory, leaving trails of mists covering its tracks.  He wanted to cry out, yell and scream.  Because it, those aches in his chest, left him with more questions than answers.  Especially when he glanced to his left and saw the same view as from yesterday.

A world that was light and cheerful, pleasant in ways that he knew he couldn’t allow himself to enjoy.

He had to find his way off this world and back to his friends.

Slowly, Sora let out a sigh as he unclenched his tank top and rested his relaxed hands on his lap.  His eyes focused on the buildings and sights of people, instead of letting him drown in his own dark thoughts.

The world outside, bright with the morning sun, reflected a unique kind of peace that was slowly creeping in.  He couldn’t stop himself from relaxing and enjoying the sounds of twittering birds and soft strums of a distance guitar and other string instruments.  It was beautiful to listen to, since both birds and instruments harmonized so well together.  This world really was unique in that aspect; that everyone and everything appeared to be so musically harmonious.

“ _Ahhhhhh_ Ahhhhhh **AHCK** -”

Well, almost everyone and everything.

Sora winced when he heard one of two voices, that had been rising with each note, had gasped.  Soon coughing took the place of the singing duet.  He felt a bit bad at hearing the coughing continue, glancing around and even leaning out of the window to see where the singer was.  The balconies in the buildings next to this one were not occupied.  The street below had an occasional person walking by, but no one stopped in a singing lesson.

“Huh,” Sora muttered out to himself, leaning back into the room and sighing.  He figured he should try to get out of the bed now, rather than wasting anymore time here.  

Though a part of him was still so desperate to just _relax_.  He had been fighting for peace for nearly three years now, and this final battle had taken such a heavy toll on him.  Nearly losing all of his friends, feeling that heavy loss at the Keyblade Graveyard, seeing Riku face against that tidal wave of heartless, being powerless to stop him from being taken away, and then having to save them all with the threat that he might-

Sora swallowed thickly and pulled the comforter off of him as he got up from the bed.  He had to distract himself, move around, anything but continue that line of thought.  He had stopped Master Xehanort from opening Kingdom Hearts and had helped save his friends and the worlds.

But why did it feel like he was being pulled along into more responsiblity, more work, more...everything!?  Why did it feel like, after everything, if he stopped, then he wouldn’t be able to...start again?

“Nothing makes sense right now,” he murmured to himself as he headed over to the door that he knew that led out of the room, instead of the other two doors back in the bedroom he figured were for the closet and private bathroom.  He opened it slowly, peaking out as if he was waiting for someone to surprise him with being just outside.  But, after peaking out, no one was there.  So, he continued to open the door up enough to slip outside of the room.

After carefully shutting the door behind him, he glanced around this upper floor -now seeing that there was a staircase going down to the right- and saw a few more doors, all shut, and a piano in the back corner of this small upstairs.  Burnt orange wallpaper went smoothly together with the deep purple of the carpeting.  Wooden fencing, decorated with balusters shaped in the style of lines of musical sheets with notes of a song, wrapped around the top of the staircase.  Paintings decorated the walls here and there, most just an array of colors and patterns.  The hallway was about the same width as the staircase, leaving the rest of the room for the rooms to his left.  The top floor appeared to be the width of the bedroom he had just been in.  It didn’t seem like this place was a big one.  Homes back on Destiny Islands were about the same, small and homey.

He softly stepped over to the stairs and headed down with his hand trailing down the bannister until he reached the bottom of the steps.  The more he moved around, the better he began to feel.  Hopefully that was a good sign for him, since he didn’t want to think that he might be permanently ill with whatever had caused his heart to become more “dissonant” as the healer had said.  A lingering feeling of something still hung onto him though.  Of which or what about, he didn’t know.

Once down the stairs and just turning left, he was assaulted with delightful sights, sounds, and smells.

The interior of the house was about the same from upstairs with softer colors on the walls along with pictures and paintings to match.  He could see a few pictures that must be Melody and Harmony, along with other people he didn’t know the names for.  In front of him was an open doorway.  To the left was a hallway that lead to the front door and was dotted with at least two doors, one on each side, and to the right was another shut door.  It was definitely a small house.

Soft sounds of instrumental music drifted through the house from a radio somewhere else in the house.  But the music wasn’t loud in volume to manage such a feat.  Like a breeze, the music drifted through the open spaces of the home.  It added to the soft, morning atmosphere of the house listening to it.  Hearing it instead of debates of darkness and heartless and the fate of the worlds was definitely reminiscent of Destiny Islands.

The smells definitely came from the open doorway ahead of him, which obviously led to the kitchen.  Sizzling and savory meat and pancakes filled the air up with their sweet scents.  All of it made his mouth water, and stomach growl for the food.  He guessed that the last time he had eaten was yesterday morning.  Or rather, the morning before yesterday.  Honestly, Sora couldn’t remember how many days had passed collectively.  It was really starting to make his brain hurt trying to figure out how long he had been asleep, when the showdown in the Keyblade Graveyard had been, and when he had eaten last.

So, without much more hesitance and internal confusion of time and hunger pangs, he walked over and into the doorway.

In the middle of the kitchen, there was a small table set for breakfast.  Sora counted the five spots that had been made, now knowing that there was at least four other people here.  Glancing up from the table, there were two backs facing him at the opposite counters, clearly finishing up breakfast.  

One he recognized as Melody given by the mass of dark hair that fell down and sat against her back almost like a cape.  It hadn’t been that way yesterday, remembering the tight braid she had worn.  Her appearance looked more relaxed than yesterday, though he guessed her favorite colors were that of the brighter variety -oranges, yellows, and colors similar to that of summer.

The other figure next to her was one Sora didn’t know or had met yesterday during his moments of wakefulness.  Her apparel looked more professional than Melody’s -dark and pressed slacks and a crisped silver blouse.  Rows of small, black braids fell down over the blouse from her scalp.  They nearly reached this person’s waist.  That was not the only incredible part about them.  All the small braids seem to either form lines like on a music sheet or the notes within those lines.  It was a sight to see.  Sora thought about the skill and musical love that came to do something like that.

He was snapped out of the captivation of these two unique and color dynamically complimentary individuals standing side-by-side when the woman he hadn’t met yesterday began to speak to Melody.  Her voice, like Melody’s, was a soft tone of voice.  But where Melody had an underlying power to her voice -Ariel’s voice had the same tone, so Sora thought that maybe Melody was a singer-, the other woman’s voice did not need that power of projection that Melody had.

“Are you going to tell me or any of us about the teen upstairs?”

There was a soft chuckling in Melody’s voice as she answered the other woman back, “Do you trust me so little that you need to know so badly?  Oh, and the bacon is burning.”

“Melody,” the other woman sighed out before the taping of a spatula against a pan and more sizzling of the sweet-smelling bacon.

“Dear, I told you he asked me to stay silent about it.  I do not wish to break a promise so important to him and to myself.  I would rather know that I can keep a secret than now if it means so much to someone.”

“If it is so important then you should tell me.”  The placating voice of Melody did not deter the other woman into finding out what Sora knew was his promise.  He felt guilt rise up in his stomach at the fact that it was because he had asked for Melody’s silence that they were softly arguing now.

The other woman continued in a soft tone, gentle and prodding, “As your songmate and wife.”

“Symphony!”  Melody half-turned towards the other woman, Symphony, with a look of shocked outrage.  “Do not guilt me into revealing something!”

Sora winced at the higher pitch of voice Melody had now.  The other woman did so as well.  Melody didn’t sound too happy now with her, which made the guilt in Sora’s gut ten times worse now.  Maybe he should say something, explain himself to Melody’s _wife_ before the argument got worse.  It was his fault they were even going back and forth now.

“I wasn’t Melody!” the other woman snapped back, before letting out a long breath and inhaling calmly, “I only wish to know so that I can keep our family safe.”

Melody had turned back like she had been before and sighed, shoulders slumping with the exhale of breath.  Symphony appeared to have stopped cooking, looking towards her wife in wait.

“I know, but please trust me,” Melody begged softly, going back to cooking but with slower movements.  She looked almost defeated, which must have been noticeable to her wife.  Because Symphony soon wrapped her arm around Melody’s waist and held her against her side.

After pressing a kiss against the thick long of brown, Sora could barely hear Symphony murmur out to the other, “I do, and I’m sorry for pushing.”

Melody took the apology and then rested her head on the other’s shoulder as an acceptance of it.  It was nice to see that maybe he hadn’t really caused a bad argument between them, which would have made him feel _worse_.  Even if he didn’t know these people, hadn’t gotten the time yet to know them, he didn’t want to cause any strife or bad feelings.  They were good people; he could tell that just by how soft they were with each other and the care he had been shown.

“Is food done?” Sora asked once there was a lull in conversation, startling both.  Both Melody, after lifting her head up, and Symphony glanced over their shoulders at him.  Both women looked almost confused as to why he was there in the first place.  He really hoped he hadn’t seemed to have been eavesdropping.  He hadn’t meat to!

Also, Sora hoped that he wouldn’t cause any more discomfort being here after they had just been discussing him.

He walked into the kitchen more, hoping his nervous energy wasn’t too noticeable, before going over and taking a seat.  He gave them a soft smile, which was easily returned by Melody.  Symphony gave him a curious cocked-up eyebrow, before she turned back around to finish cooking.

“Almost done,” Melody answered him back, voice softer now towards him, which really didn’t help the fact that he knew they had been talking about him and they knew he knew.  He could see how there was still some nervous and tense air now that he was _present_.  But what could he do to relieve it?

The answer was actually nothing at all.

“Is food done or am I just going to starve this morning?”

The voice belonged to the teen from yesterday, Harmony, who walked into the kitchen while rubbing her eyes and looked like she had just woken up.  Her hair was down and unruly, while also wearing bright orange pajamas.

She didn’t appear to notice Sora just yet as she took a few more steps into the kitchen and over to the table, hand grabbing the back of one of the empty chairs to pull it out.  However, that didn’t last long when she glanced at him and caught him looking at her.  There was a pause of silence between them, since Sora really didn’t know what to say to her.  He should say something to her, greet her.  But after listening-in-but-not-meaning-to to Melody and Symphony, the urge to stay quiet was very strong right now. 

Finally, he wasn’t the one to break the silence between them.

“Oh, good morning, _bed stealer_.”

“Harmony!” Melody chastised and fully turned around to face them, frowning at her younger sister and earning a grin in return, “He is a guest, and you offered to let him sleep there.”  She gestured with the spoon in her hands, slinging it and the batter that had been on it away, and didn’t notice that she had done so.

Harmony rolled her eyes.  “I did, I did.  I just forgot how uncomfortable the couch was to sleep on.”  She rolled her shoulders back and yawned once more.  She didn’t look like she had gotten the best sleep where she had been, which made Sora feel a bit more guilt to his current total amount that he had taken her bed last night.

“Oh, sorry.  I didn’t mean to take your bed.  I can sleep on the couch, since you shouldn’t have to give up your bed for me.”

Harmony flippantly waved her hand and took a seat in her chosen spot at the breakfast table.  “Oh, I do plan on getting it back, but it’s not really a big deal.  Just wasn’t easy getting changed without, you know…”

“Well, since he is down here, you probably should go do that now.  Breakfast isn’t ready yet,” Symphony chimed in, having wrapped her arm back around Melody’s waist and pulling her close to her chest.  It was a soothing motion; one Sora had seen his parents do whenever he had acted up as a child.  It caused a pang in his heart in missing _home_.

“Oh _Song_ , you’re right!”  Harmony quickly scrambled out of the chair and headed out of the room and up the stairs, going back the same way Sora had come down.  “Don’t eat everything before I get back down!”  The loud yell was heard through the whole house as the footsteps faded away.

Sora couldn’t stop the small smile from appearing on his face.  He felt a kindred spirit with Harmony, remembering having done that at his own home and at Riku’s when he had stayed over as a kid.  He felt a little more relaxed now.

Sora took one of the empty seats at the table, waiting for breakfast to be done.  The two women appeared to have no need for his help as they finished up, plating and bringing the freshly cooked food over to the table to set down in the middle.  All of it looked and smelled great to him, nearly drooling at the sight.  He caught sight out of the corner of his eyes of Symphony giving him an amused look on her lips, which made him answer the smile back with a sheepish grin back.

A few minutes later, the sound of footsteps rushing down the stairs preceded the appearance of Harmony dressed in more normal, everyday attire.  Her hair, still damp, was pulled back up as it had been yesterday.

“Right on time.”  Harmony took her spot once more, which was to Sora’s left.  Melody sat to his right, and Symphony to her right.  The was still one more chair left, facing him across the table.

“Who-” he began to say before Symphony’s voice spoke up to soon greet the missing person from the table.

“Grandma.”

He glanced over as the grandmother to Symphony walked in and took the remaining seat.  She and her granddaughter shared many physical similarities, as well as a poised air too.  Almost like a teacher, if Sora had to guess on an occupation.

“Good morning, and good morning to our guest,” she spoke directly to Sora, which made him fidget in his seat.  He hated having to impress and look mature for adults, like Master Yen Sid.  They always seemed to be able to tell that he wasn’t.

“Gramma Orchestra, this is Sora.  Sora, this is my grandmother-in-law.”

“H-hello,” he greeted back with a grin that grew weaker as the seconds ticked by.  Orchestra didn’t give much away on her face, which was hard to read her mood about his presence here.  She didn’t appear to dislike him being here, but he couldn’t quite tell if that was true or not.

Of course, while he was worrying so much, Sora jumped when he heard Harmony break out into a fit of laughter.

“Oh jeez Gramma, you might want to ease up on the Stoic Professor Look you’re giving him.”

Sora glanced confusedly at Harmony before looking back at the older woman, who now a softer look on her face with a bit of a twinkle of mischief in her eye.  Her face still held some of that seriousness too.  Sora definitely felt like he wouldn’t find it easy to know what she was thinking of.

“I see he has never been to a proper music school then if he finds my look so serious.  My teachers all looked that way which I dare say didn’t mean they didn’t have a spot of softness for us all.  But it is nice to see a new face in my home.”

Symphony, who had begun to use her fork to pick up pieces of bacon and pancakes to put on her own plate, simply chuckled.  Melody joined in her wife in both the light laughter and getting her food.  Once it appeared that was an alright thing to do and he wouldn’t be chewed about being here, Sora got his own breakfast.  The rest of the family joined in, soon taking bites and enjoying the tastes.

After a moment or two of eating, Sora finally remembered some of his manners and quickly swallow his current mouthful of food to tell Orchestra, “Thank you for letting me stay here.”

“You’re quite welcomed, though I wasn’t told you were to be staying here.”  Orchestra gave him a soft smile before taking a sip of steaming tea from a teacup.  Even with the smile that he could still see above the rim of the cup, Sora still felt bad that he hadn’t asked to stay here even if it had been okay for him to.

Just as he was about to apologize for that, Melody spoke up in his defense as she wiped her mouth with a napkin, “Well, he was in no wakeful condition to move to the healing clinic, and the healer had said his heart was slightly dissonant.”

“Really?”

Melody nodded once, “Yes.”

“Is that why you didn’t tell me the reason at first or part of the reason?” Symphony asked her wife, looking from Sora to Melody with a curious look.  Melody, instead of meeting her eyes, glanced to him instead.  Her eyes held the question that he recognized as asking if it was okay to say anything more.  Sora didn’t know how he felt about that, glancing to the rest of the group at the table and wondering if he could trust them to keep the secret of other worlds and keyblades among themselves.

“Well, it’s...part of it, yes.”

Harmony now took an interest in the conversation at hand, looking to her sister and staring her with a questioning gaze.  “There’s more?”  Unlike her sister’s wife, she was ready to poke and prod to know more about why Sora was still here and not being picked up by his parents.  The mystery had been one she wanted to figure out and know more about.

“Harmony, please don’t push,” Melody sighed, shoulders dropping a bit in defeat now that she was having to field all of these questions, “If Sora doesn’t want to tell us-”

“What in the Song’s music could be a reason for not telling something if it is so important?” Orchestra stated in a calm but serious tone of voice, losing some of the mirth from before as she took on a stern face.  It wasn’t one that was disappointed, but her unwavering gaze as to _what_ and _why_ he was here -since they were now understanding it to be something big- was making Sora feel smaller by the minute.  He tried to speak up to answer the older woman back, but he was continually cut off by the rest of the table arguing back and forth now.

If he could have sunk low in his chair and just slipped away, it probably would have been better to do so than let them go back and forth.

Keeping quiet about the worlds’ order REALLY didn’t seem like a good option now with such inquisitive and caring people.

“Melody promised not to speak of it,” Symphony rose in her wife’s defense, nodding then to Sora and not really noticing how he looked like a fish out of water at that moment, “and I suppose Sora here is entitled to his own business if he chooses it.”

Finally, Sora had enough for just listening and not getting a word in edgewise and slightly explained to the table that didn’t know the truth, “Well, it’s just that, you might not really believe what I say to be true.”  

That was part of the reason.  Just because he told them didn’t guarantee they would believe him.  Wouldn’t be one of the first times, of course.  Some people didn’t want to think that there were other worlds, stranger worlds, than their own.  Some people didn’t want to know or be reminded much more that there were other worlds, like King Triton had when he had visited the kingdom of Atlantica.

“Not believe you?  Oh man, now I really want to know why you were passed out on the sidewalk.  Oh, you’re welcome, by the way.  Pretty sure you would still be there if Beat and Rhythm hadn’t found you and gotten me.”

Sora, surprised once more, quickly turned to Harmony to thank her, “Oh!  Thank you so much!”  Harmony grinned back at him, clearly not really all to bothered by him not saying it before.  Sora then turned back to look at them all as he continued, “As I was saying…”

“Sora,” Melody softly interrupted, “if you don’t really want to tell us, you don't have to.  None of us will force you to tell.”

“It’s alright, Melody.  I want to tell you all if it will make you more at ease with me being here.  It’s just that, please don’t tell anyone else.”  The last sentence was directed to the others at the table.  Harmony and Symphony seemed to be more inclined to do as he said and not repeat, though Orchestra, being much older, looked a little less inclined but still willing to do him the courtesy.

“Okay!” Harmony agreed, curiosity in her voice.

Symphony nodded her head as well in agreement.  “Sounds alright to me.”

“Alright, well, where to start…” Sora began, pondering over just how far back he should start his story.  Typically, he didn’t tell citizens of other worlds the entire story, usually just needing to explain heartless, nobodies, and/or Organization XIII.  However, now he felt the urge deep in his supposedly “dissonant” heart that he shouldn’t be so brief with his explanation.  Maybe, now that the final showdown had been met, there was really no point in not telling the whole story.

“So, firstly, there are many worlds out there besides this one.  All the stars you see in the night sky are other worlds too, similar and very different from this one.  Each one inhabited by people and unique places.  Among those bright stars is my world.  I come from the Destiny Islands.  I left there when the Darkness overtook them and fought for a way to bring them back, along with my friends.  I now fight against the powers of Darkness with a weapon called the Keyblade.  Been doing it for a couple of years now, more or less.  A couple of days ago, there was this big fight against the Guardians of Light, which I was a part of, and the Seekers of Darkness.  It was a...real big fight.  Fated to happen, and one that we almost didn’t win.  All my friends, they were...taken from me, and I had been alone to save them.  But we did win, and I...used some strong power to help my friends.  It had a cost, apparently, and then I woke up here.”

All sounds of eating and enjoying breakfast from before had stopped dead silent.  There was now a heavy silence at the breakfast table.

Sora glanced to each of them at the table, seeing similar shocked faces after they heard him explain.  None of them had a look of disbelief, which was good in some way if it meant that they believed him.  Or they either thought the story was too outlandish to NOT be true.  

“Aren’t you like, my age?  And all that happened to you?” Harmony asked, disbelief in her voice and on her face as she stared at him.  When he nodded his head, that disbelief turned into dawning horror on her face as she realized just how long Sora must have been on this “adventure” of his.  “Oh...oh Song!”

“Yeah, but, I mean, I made lots of friends along the way,” Sora tried to lighten the mood now, feeling that the silence from the others at the table really wasn’t helping his own nervous energy bubbling up, “And we won that battle, I think.  I’m pretty sure we did.  It was just that I had to find Kairi, my friend, afterwards since she...got lost.  So, I had to leave everyone.  But after that, leaving them, I can’t really remember what happened besides waking up here.”

Again, there was another pause of silence, before Symphony spoke up this time, voice full of a consoling tone, “That is...something else.”

“My goodness,” Melody breathed out, now realizing the scope of the promise and secret she had been keeping since yesterday, “you have been through a lot.”

“Yeah, but I made it this far.”  Sora smiled at them all, trying to reassure them that he was fine.  That everything that had happened to him, his home, and his friends, he was fine because he had made it through all those trials and tribulations.  His strength had come from his friends and keeping happy for them.  But, as he continued to smile at these three new faces, the smile felt weaker than that he had shown before to those that he eventually got to know of and could call “friend.”  Sora hoped that none of them would question it.

“Yeah you did.  With...what did you call it?  “Keyblade”?  Can you show us what that is?  We didn’t see anything lying around next to you when we found you.”

“Oh!  Well that’s because I summon it to me.”  Sora held out his hand to do so, but after a few seconds the weapon didn’t appear.  Strange.  “That’s...not right.”  He tried again, focusing on all of his heart on it appearing.  But once more it didn’t shimmer forth to him.  Not even the faint feeling of power that typically came with the instinct feeling he felt with the keyblade was there.   “It should come when I call it with my heart.  I don’t understand why it wouldn’t.”

Sora clenched and unclenched his hand, staring at it as though it would hold the answer he was looking for.  But still nothing appeared.  He knew he still could use magic, had used it yesterday, but this was his keyblade!  It not appearing was a sign that something really was wrong, wrong with his heart especially.

“Hmm,” Melody hummed in thought, tapping a finger against her cheek as she did, “maybe due to your heart being dissonant?  That would definitely stop anything from being summoned if it is connected to your heartsong.”  Both Symphony and Orchestra nodded their heads in agreement and spoke similar answers too.

Sora didn’t know much more about heartsongs still or what having one being dissonant would do, so he had to rely on their knowledge about the subject.  It still didn’t feel right or good that he was so affected that he couldn’t even summon his keyblade.  It brought up old feelings of doubt that were usually pushed far down inside of him.

“I suppose so.  It’s just that…”

Harmony bumped her shoulder against Sora’s, bringing his attention away from those doubting thoughts and looking at her and her smile, “Hey, it’s not like having a dissonant heart is permanent.  You can harmonize it, though it does take some time.  Like, healing a broken bone.”

“Oh.”  Well, that didn’t sound so bad then.  If it could heal over time, then it meant that there was a chance that he would be able to summon his keyblade once more and find a way to use it or another way to get back to his friends.  Yen Sid did say that his heart was his guiding key.  So, he would just have to harmonize his heartsong and have it guide him back!

“Harm’ is right.  If your heartsong wasn’t entirely dissonant or broken, then you can harmonize it by focusing in on it.  It does take time, but it is manageable if you keep focusing on the song and letting yourself feel it once more correctly,” Melody explained to him, even though he still could only really nod and take her word for it.  It didn’t sound that much more complicated than the usual magic that he dealt with.

“Alright then, though I don’t really know what that means, since this is the only world where I have heard about that.  But if you say that it is possible to heal it, then I will try.”  Sora gave Melody a big grin, earning one back from her that was soft and caring.  It felt good knowing that he had help.  Even if it might take days or weeks to solve his current dilemma, they wouldn’t be spent somewhere inhospitable or darkness-ridden.  This world was bright and happy.

The rest of the breakfast was continued with small talk instead of any more bombshells of truth.  Sora got to hear about how Harmony was in school, though it was surprisingly that it wasn’t a fully _musical_ school.  Harmony had laughed at him when he suggested that and told him that she had to learn about math and other subjects as well as music.  It even earned chuckles from the adults at the table. 

Then it switched to finding out the professions of Melody, her wife and family.  Melody was an opera singer, though currently during her off months.  ‘I can’t sing all the time, since it would ruin my voice,’ was what she told him when he asked why she had off months.  There was a nervously shy way she spoke about her own singing, as though she wasn’t as good as Symphony soon praised her to be.  Sora wondered what she sounded like.

Symphony was a conductor, which would make sense for how she was dressed this morning.  The formal attire definitely made him think of the ideas of conductors and mentally agree that she fit the bill of a conductor.  Also, he couldn’t help but notice slight gestures she made that should have clued him in.  She told him that she works with an orchestra in town, though it was typically an all-day work.

Lastly Orchestra spoke of her work, though she told him that she had been retired from it for a few years now.  A concert pianist and prodigy turned music professor.  There was a great sense of pride in her own abilities that made him impressed by the older woman.  Though it soon turned to praise for her granddaughter, saying how such musical ability, though rigorously trained, was a gift present in Symphony, who ducked her head a bit with a small smile on her face.

Breakfast ended shortly after they had finished talking about all their works, which then lead to Symphony kissing Melody goodbye as she left for her work.  Symphony headed out of the kitchen, saying that she would be doing some scores today and not to disturb her while she did.

“Can you two help me clean up?” Melody asked her sister and Sora, getting nods from both of them.  She gave them smiles that were easily returned as they all set to work cleaning up the table and dishes.

As they cleaned, there was a lull in conversation but not in sounds.  Melody hummed a small tune, and Harmony added to it with a grin on her face as she scrubbed off the food from the plates and dunked them in water.  Sora didn’t know the song, but that didn’t stop him from joining in with them.  Both didn’t seem to mind, if their grins were any indication, which made him smile even bigger as he continued along.

Once they finished cleaning up, Sora was happy to have helped them.  It was a start in returning the favor of them helping him.  Still, he did wonder what to do next.  Without any real guidance in healing his heartsong, he didn’t really have a plan in mind.

“What should we do next?” he asked them, watching as Melody dried her hands.  She appeared a little lost in her own thoughts and humming, so it was Harmony who quickly answered him back.

“Hey!  I could show you around Symposia-Operani!”  Harmony was grinning at him, looking like she had the greatest idea in the world now.  Her mood was infectious, though.  Sora had found himself curious about this world and wanting to see its sights like he had done with other worlds.  “It might be a good start in harmonizing your heart!”

“That’s sounds like a good idea!”

“Alright then!” Harmony clapped her hands together before quickly grabbing onto one of Sora’s arms to begin to drag him out of the kitchen.  On her way out with him, she did make sure to tell her sister, “We’ll be back later, Mel’!”

As Sora was pulled down the hallway quickly to the front door, he heard Melody answer back to be safe.  He grinned at how this family was like.  As he passed by an open doorway to his left, he saw Orchestra at a piano before he was pulled along.  Harmony let go of his arm to begin slipping on her shoes, and so did Sora.  Then Harmony opened the front door, smiling at him, and walked out first while he followed behind her.  

There was still a sound of soft music in the distance, multiple sounds of music and sounds of nature of this world.  It all came together to form a harmony in the air that sounded like perfection.  It was hard to think that anything here couldn't sound so perfect.  A pang in his chest told him that there were still things and hearts here that could be that way.

“Come on then, I’ll show you all around here!” Harmony grinned, heading down the sidewalk with Sora walking next to her.  The buildings were the same as they had been from the opened window, but it was nice to be able to smile and greet people on the street a “Good morning” too.  This world, this town, these people, they reminded him why he had spent so much fighting against others who would want to snuff out the lights and hearts of worlds.  It helped alleviate some of the dull ache in his chest thinking such uplifting thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any questions or want to know more about this world, then hit me up at my [tumblr](http://anaya-of-wolves.tumblr.com/) and just ask. I will be happy to talk more about my ocs and the world they live on!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now things are getting a little more interesting in this chapter. Nothing too extreme, but the first inkling of what is going on is finally arrived. I am trying to hammer out some smaller details about it, but I am working on it. I just am glad that the rest why things are the way they are in this fic is finally written! There will be more, though it will be in the rest of the series. *winks* 
> 
> But I really do hope you all enjoy this chapter.
> 
> There is also some references that I hope most of you catch, which actually is a little important to what is going on too.

_Easiest sound you can make is your own._  
_No tune or melody or rhyme_  
_Can ever truly be but mine  
_ _And yours._

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

Sora always enjoyed exploring and seeing the worlds that he visited.  Traveling through them all allowed him to see just how so many other people lived so differently than himself.  Growing up on a few small islands, the adventures he had really had given him so much to see and do that it should have worn him out by now.  But boundless energy and the courage to stand up for the worlds and Light itself pushed him to continue on through so many adventures and trials he faced.

It was because of that enjoyment of exploration -or at least the thought of it- that distracted him now from the worry that had been eating at him after waking up the last couple times.  Of course, that didn’t mean it had gone away once he got to look and be outside of the small house.  Seeing the other homes, scenery, people passing by, and daily life all reminded him of the job as a keyblader.  As both a protector and a fighter for all of those that lived in the Light and the worlds.  They got all of this peace because of him and his friends.

He had also lost some of his own peace because of it too.

But blaming them, this world, and peace wouldn’t help him get back home.  He knew that.  Harmony began leading him and walking with him down the sidewalk once they were outside the front door.  It did feel somewhat nice to not have to be on high alert for Heartless, Unversed, or Nobodies around.  Organization XIII had been defeated -again-, which meant that it was for the last time.  He could actually enjoy seeing a world for all the beauty it held instead of rushing by too quickly.

Each house they passed, so close together to the next building, were all uniquely designed.  Most of them were constructed of painted bricks with colorful plants in window boxes, little windchimes dangling here and there.  Terraces and balconies jutted out and hung over the sidewalks like large tree branches.  The fragrances in the air and the sounds of occasional music from various points and people around made him feel serenity down to his heart.

Briefly, as they continued to walk together down the sidewalk, Sora shut his eyes and focused on his heart and his heartsong they told him about.  He focused, as he would trying to tap into his powers or keyblade.

_Harmonize...find the harmony...the light within the melody…_

He focused as he continued to take blind steps, completely deaf to the world outside now.  He could feel the heartbeats in his chest, rhythmic and familiar, and something else.  Focusing harder on it, Sora swore he could hear something else deep within him.  It felt so familiar.  He continued to focus on it, struggling under the pressure of focusing so hard on such a soft sound.  Why was this being so difficult?!  If he could hear that song, then maybe he could hear what was wrong and help fix it!

Just as he was about to be able to hear more than a faint whisper of that melody, he was jerked out of his focus by a tug on his arm.  The sound that he had been focusing on faded away once his senses picked up on the world around him.  His ears filled with the natural noises of the world around, as did his eyes with the sights around once they were back open.  He glanced to Harmony, who was giving him a confused and concerned tilt of her head.

“I’m fine,” he reassured her.  It did not do that job, sadly.

The disbelieving look furrowed deep into her face, before she lightly shook her head as well, “Okay, well, being “fine” usually doesn’t mean walking around with your eyes close, you know?  Are you okay?  Sensory overload?”

Sora shook his head, feeling nothing really wrong with himself, but he regretted that he had lost that small tether of a connection to that melody.  His heartsong.  It had been so close to being really heard, which did make him feel worse for the failure.

“I’m good, really," he reassured her once more, offering a simple smile as well, "Just, thought I almost had it.  But now, I don’t think I can really focus on it.”

“Had it?” Harmony asked, soon directing them to the right around a corner before another quick right into a small enclosed park.  Sora got to see more marvels of the botanical wonder that inhabited Symposia-Operani and the serenity of the sounds of a small, bubbling fountain next to a bench.  Harmony sat down, patting the seat next to her for him to take it as well.  Once he did, she was quiet.  Sora knew she was waiting for him to answer her question, to explain what he had been doing or felt right now.  But, well, he supposed he could consider her a new friend and could tell her what he had been trying to do.  She had brought him here to sit down, after all, and shared her room with him.  Friends helped each other too; so, it would make sense to tell her if she wanted to know as a concerned friend.  Maybe even she would have some answers to the questions he still could not answer for himself.

Finally, Sora broke the quiet between them, adding to the natural music around them, “Harmony?”  His eyes watched his own hands fidget in his lap, wondering why he was so nervous all of a sudden.

“Hmm?”

“Can I ask you, what is a “heartsong”?” he asked her, meeting her concerned gaze before finding himself looking away.  Ivy clung to the bricks that enclosed this small plot of flower beds, stretching up and around the gating that lined the top.  The ironwork looked like flutes, titled as though they were in mid-playing a song he just didn’t hear.  “You know now that I am not around here, and, since mine might be...dissonant, I might need help in fixing it.  I am a little worried that it might hinder help my chances on getting back to my friends if it doesn't harmonize.”

Being “a little worried” was a vast understatement to tell her.

Sora could already feel that creeping and choking fear in his throat, feeling that without his friends here he would truly be stuck here.  Maybe it was some cosmic karma for thinking he could do anything by himself.  After all, his friends were his power.  Even if Riku had told him that he believed in him and his own power, Sora felt as though he wasn’t that strong.  He was here, on this world, after all.  He had gone and messed up once more, even though he still hoped that at least Kairi was save with the others.  He swallowed hard and fought back the feeling of tears just as Harmony began to answer him back, glancing back to her as to not look like he was ignoring her valuable answers to his own questions.

“Oh, yeah, sure you can.  Since you aren’t, like you said, from around here and wouldn't know a thing,” Harmony teased him a bit, smiling and soon dropping that smile as she looked to be thinking over what to tell Sora.  

“Well, a heartsong is...well, hard to describe to someone who doesn't know anything really.  Essentially, it is your song of life.  It starts whenever you are born and continues on through your life.  It is your life, in a sense too.  A heartsong is the song you create throughout your life, sometimes joining in duet or choirs with others like family and friends.  If you focus hard enough on that inner melody, then someone is able to see how their song has been and can make it continue on the way they feel keeps it harmonized like any other song.

Occasionally, though, a heartsong can become dissonant, but it tends to be because that is a turbulent point of the song.  But heartsongs are strong, if you feel and keep them strong within you.

It only ends once you...pass away, but that doesn’t mean no one will keep singing about you.  Because we are all connected with our heartsongs in symphony, then when our heartsongs can’t be continued by ourselves, then it goes into another’s song to be remembered.”  There was a lingering silence after Harmony finished telling him her descriptions of heartsongs.  Sadness coated her voice during the last bit, and he felt as though she spoke from very personal experiences.  Harmony had lost someone or someones, which made him feel bad in turn for making her relive that hurt.

So, he figured he would ask her something that didn’t pertain to the end of someone’s heartsong, “So, why would mine become turbulent?”

Harmony listlessly shrugged her shoulders, eyes still looking far away into memories that Sora was not privy to.  “Honestly, I don’t know for your case.  I mean, no one has ever thought there might be other worlds out there.  Not that it is impossible, but I’ve never heard of other people talking about it.  So, maybe something happened as you made your way here?”

Sora thought on what might have happened, even though his mind still did not know what had.  He could only remember snippets, and of those, only the one about Chirithy telling him something important really stood out.  But his memories were still so hazy and disjointed as his heartsong was apparently.

_I’m so far from my friends, I abused a power that I shouldn’t have to save my friends, and Xehanort hadn’t held back.  Maybe that caused it…_

Like biting into a sour fruit, the thoughts of only himself to be blamed came back once more.  There really was no use in thinking that, but Sora knew that he hadn’t been as strong as Riku and the others believing him to be if he was now somewhere far away.  Maybe this just had been all his fault in the end.  His friends would have to come and find him to help him, again.

 _Am I really that weak?,_ he thought, feeling that having such a dissonant heartsong, that stopped him ability to summon his keyblade, really answered that question.

“But,” Harmony interrupted his spiraling downward thoughts, snapping his attention back to her and her softly smiling face, “Like any hiccup in a song, that doesn’t mean you have to stop it completely.  Sometimes you make a mistake or a rough note, but you can still continue on singing or playing the rest of the song.”

Sora thought over that encouragement, feeling it lifting his darkening thoughts that he knew could very well threaten his light.  Harmony was right.  He had to keep going, because there was always a light that never went out.

There was a song inside of him that would keep playing.

With that new resolve, that new sense of confidence in his own ability to help himself even when he felt he had messed up, Sora opened his mouth to tell her that he was ready to see more of the city, but, before he could do that,-

“Meow.”

Sora glanced down to his feet where he had heard the sound come from.  A cat darted out from under the bench and between his legs, meowing loudly as it looked up at him.  It’s bright blue eyes among the dark gray fur really caught Sora’s attention now and away from his thoughts of heartsongs and hearts.  A smile crept on his face watching the cat rub against his legs.

“Hey there kitty cat,” he greeted, reaching down to pet the cat.  The cat seemed to have eager for pets, because it butted its head against Sora’s hand before letting the hand move down its spine.  The fur was soft, so Sora doubted this was just a normal street cat.

Harmony, however, appeared to know more about this cat, greeting it cheerfully, “Oh, good morning, Berlioz!”

Sora glanced over to her, seeing a bright grin on her face and a cat now in her arms seemingly by magic.  There hadn’t been one there a moment ago.  That cat in her arms was a pure orange cat, almost giving the gray cat on the ground a smug, cat-like look.

“This is his brother, Toulouse,” Harmony informed him, showing the cat off more to him before letting him nestle back down into her arms.  Toulouse appeared to be content where he was at.

Sora grinned brightly at the cat, knowing that it wouldn’t hurt to be kind to all people and animals, “Good morning, then, to you both!”  Berlioz meowed loudly and demanding, making Sora continue petting him so that he wouldn’t sound so upset.  Out of the corner of his eyes, Harmony appeared to be content with petting and murmuring soft tune to Toulouse.  It was relaxing with the birds chirping in the trees and the purring from both cats.  Sora could feel that worry and fearful thoughts from before ease away back into a calm.  Maybe over-worrying wasn’t the best idea in order to help solve his problems.

“One of Melody’s old instructors own these two cats and a few more,” Harmony softly explained, hand running from the top of the orange cat’s head down to the base of his tail, “She is a nice lady and an opera singer.  Or at least, a retired one that is.”

Sora nodded his head, not really knowing anything to say and guessing that Harmony didn’t need him to say anything anyway.  She appeared so calm and peaceful while petting Toulouse, which he could easy find himself doing as well.

Maybe this stop hadn’t been just for her concern for him.

Minutes passed by in relative peace in their secluded spot.  A person or couple would walk by, speaking or singing to themselves, or even an animal would trot by.  Nothing appeared to be amiss in both the serene sounds around them or the jovial inhabitants of the world.  Had he not pressing matters of returning back to his most likely worried friends, Sora found that staying here wouldn’t be the worst thing to possibly happen to him.  It was a place he was finding that appealed to him deeply, like the Destiny Islands had.

“Toulouse!  Berlioz!” called a distant voice nearby, which caused the two cats to perk their ears up at being called.  Toulouse wiggled in Harmony’s arms, becoming free once she opened them and jumping down to join Berlioz on the ground.  Once both cats were together, they both meowed up at the two teens before bounding away and towards whenever that voice came from outside of the little garden.  Seeing those two cats reminded him of the many animal friends he had befriended throughout his adventure.  Each one had a unique personality to themselves too.  Sora smiled at the memories sprung up as well.

Once he pulled his thoughts away from those deeper memories, Sora was met with a bright grin on Harmony’s face that looked like she had learned a secret or two.  Selphie had always given him that looked whenever she asked him Riku and Kairi.  But there was always a tone in her voice when she said their names, like she was fishing for something from him.

Before Sora could ask her about why she was smiling like that, Harmony quickly hopped up onto her feet and gestured for him to follow her, “Let’s go!  There is so much more to see around here!”

Sora couldn’t wait to see more then, even that is why she was so excited now.  The feeling was infectious from her, causing him to quickly get up as well and nearly chase after her as she darted out of the little garden space and down the sidewalk.  He had to make sure he could watch where she was going, but he also had to watch for other people.  It was fun, though.  Like the races back on the islands.  He felt young and free again.

Something he hadn’t noticed he had been missing these past, adventuring years.

 

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

Sora had followed Harmony all though Symposia-Operani, seeing all the sights she wished to show him.  The town, after venturing through it, was not as big as he first thought it was.  With all the buildings close together and the simply peaceful atmosphere, the town revealed itself to be small and quaint.  Which suited it just fine.  He got the feeling, however, as he walked with Harmony and listened to her speak about this or that she pointed out, that she had been around the city many, many times.  There also lacked kids around their age that he could see, or rather not see.  Mostly adults of varying ages were out walking around with their daily activities.  Sora wondered if Harmony even had people to hang with.  A kinship of feeling of getting out and exploring arose in him at the thought that Harmony might not be so content with just Symposia-Operani and whatever may lay outside of the city limits.  But he also felt as though he didn’t quite know her yet to just assume such.  There was the two people she had mentioned during breakfast, Rhythm and Beat, who were probably her friends.  He wondered where they were now.

Eventually, as the sun rose higher into the zenith of the bright blue sky, Harmony led him down the well-cobbled streets and closer to the outer parts of the city.  Here there were larger buildings instead and what looked to be older buildings too.  But those appeared not to be what she wanted to show him.

“Come on, we could use some rest with all the walking around we’ve done,” she told him, jerking her head a bit towards the direction of the sloping, grassy field that led to the river that ran near to the city.

Careful not to slip and go rolling down the hill, Sora walked a few steps behind Harmony’s lead.  A small little wildflower dotted the grassy slope here and there, adding some color to the vast green around them.  Getting closer to the flowing water, he could hear the gentle sound it made and see the almost lazy current.  Its blue waters looked even more so up close and under the light of the afternoon sun, sparkling like dazzling gems.  Once they both reached the sandy, dirt of the banks, Harmony plopped right down there without a word else.  Sora sat down next to her too.  The ground felt soft under him, cool even under the sunlight.

“This is the Rubato River,” Harmony broke the soft quietness between them only to tell him that, before she leaned all the way back and laid down on the ground.  Her hands came together behind her head, forming a makeshift pillow.

Sora nodded once, though instead of laying down at this moment with her, his eyes still glanced around.  Further pass the river was the forest he had seen from her window, wondering what name it had, before he turned to look up and down the river’s path.  Not much else he could see from where the water flowed from and to where it flowed to.  But it was still calming to listen to as he continued to sit there and not think upon anything under than what he could currently see at the moment.  The gentle, flowing waters of the Rubato River began to lull him like the waves against the beaches back home.  Sora could feel himself relax more with each passing second and minute, understanding why Harmony hadn’t sat up longer.  He could feel the call to sleep, serenading him with soft sounds and encouragements from the river.

Sora laid down as well, mirroring the other as he did, and stared absently up at the white clouds lazily drifting by in the sky.  A tune then came to him as he stared up at the sky and listened to the river.  He started to hum it softly to himself.

It was a peaceful tune, that felt oddly familiar the more he continued to hum each note.  But the call of sleep now encroaching on his mind was making it harder and harder to remember just where he had heard this song.  If he had heard it before, instead of making it up on a whim.

His eyes slipped shut once it began harder to keep them open, still humming away that tune so familiar that he could have sworn his heart dearly yearned for something about it.  The answer rested on the tip of his tongue, ready to answer his heart, but the siren allure of sleep captured him before he could figure it out.

 

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

 _“Bar-wow!”_  

 _Sora looked frantically around in the same dark abyss as before when he heard that sound.  He heard it plainly and very clearly, so there could be no mistake that he_ hadn’t _heard the sound coming from somewhere._

_It was a very familiar sound to him too!_

_It belonged one of his dearest companions, one of his dreameaters.  He felt certain that it could be nothing but his Meow Wow.  It had to be!_

_Why his dreameater would even be here didn’t cross his mind as he continued to look among the darkness and eerie quietness around him._

_“Bounce!  Where are you?!” Sora called out, still searching around for just a sliver of a sight of the colorful creature.  But as the seconds of searching ticked by, there was no sight of Bounce at all.  The Meow Wow didn’t appear when he called nor appeared to Sora when he felt the happiness being replaced by a terrible sense of loss and sadness._

_“Bounce...buddy?”  Sora felt his heart sink when there was still no reply.  It hurt him deeply that he had been teased in such a way.  Though another thought came to him that turned such hurt into a mild worry._

_Had he just been hearing things?_

_Sora didn’t know which one was true, if he had heard his Meow Wow or if he had imagined he had.  He really wished that there was someone or something else here that maybe could help him.  He felt like he needed all the help in this trapping and lonely sense of dark that oppressed him in silence._

_Silence, probably the worst of everything that could potentially be here._

_Because it reminded him that he was so alone.  So very alone and without any help from his friends.  No dreameaters, no light in the darkness.  It was truly the worst place Sora felt that he could be, even worse than when he had been slowly losing his memories in Castle Oblivion.  At least then he had Donald and Goofy there and chased after Riku._

_But now, it was his lonely self in this silence._

 

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

“Wake up, sleepy head." 

Sora blearily opened his eyes, seeing someone standing above him.  The shadows from this angle partly obscured their face, making it hard to tell who it was.  His still sleep-addled mind was lost on the identification of just who that voice belonged to.  Instead, he began to speak the first name that came to mind -and who often woke up like that.

“Kai-” he began to say, blinking and focusing more on the face to realize that it wasn’t his best friend.  “Harmony,” he yawned, hoping to cover up his mistake, “how long have I been asleep?”

He began to sit up as he had spoken, realizing now that he was still on the Rubato River’s bank.  The water still streamed, carrying along the shimmering reflections of light.  Sora then glanced up, squinting up at the sky.  The sun above was only a few finger widths farther along in the sky, so they couldn’t have been here more than an hour or two.  Which was good, since it meant he hadn’t spent most of this day sleeping it away like it had been prone to do back on the islands.

“I don’t know specifically,” Harmony began to answer, digging the front of her shoes into the soft river bank before pushing her foot back out to knock the sand off her shoe and huffing as she did, “but I figured that, even if there wasn’t really much else to show you around here, that sleeping the whole day away wouldn’t be that fun.”

“Yeah,” Sora agreed, before quickly adding when he saw that her lips turned down into a slight frown, “that it wouldn’t be fun to just be asleep.  Been doing that a lot lately.”  He chuckled, scratching the back of his head nervously, before he grinned at her.  Upsetting people always left a sour taste in his mouth, even if he hadn’t known what he had said that upset them.  “Is there anywhere else you want to show me?  Or we could go back to your house?  Honestly, I’m game with anything you want to do.”

The frown melted away from her face, before it slowly formed into a soft smile.  “Oh yeah, there might be a place or two I hadn’t shown you in the city.  Nothing too fancy as what is in the other cities around, but I’m sure it’ll still impress you.”  She began hurrying away from the river, back up the slope they had walked down to get here.  Over her shoulder, Harmony glanced back at him with a bigger smile, “Come on, slow beat!”

Sora grinned back at her, soon running after the light-footed teen and feeling a little better that he had made her happier with his suggestion.

He still felt a weight in his chest after his short nap.  His mood, even though smiling and chasing after his new friend, felt low.  Not enough to not be able to smile, but something felt like it was bothering him with no name to explain what it was.

Maybe it was the fact that, even watching Harmony’s running form, he still felt alone here on this new world.  She could be considered his new friend, of course, but something in his heart felt that it wasn’t enough.

There was something missing.

He hurried down the sidewalks, dodging people as he tried to keep up with Harmony.  His focus on her allowed him to not notice much else, since he had seen most of the city as they had walked around it.  His focus was on not losing sight of her or get distracted by the sounds of life around him.  It was hard not to; he could admit that to himself.  Everything sounded so in tune and harmony with the rest of the natural music that it was hard not to get lost in it as well as lost in the city.

As he passed by one of the many small side paths, his focus was caught by a strange noise he heard.  Sora stopped at the entrance and looked curiously down the shady pathway between two brick buildings.

The sound was similar to that of an off-beat tambourine.  Or at least close enough to that.  It hadn't sounded at all in tune like the rest of the sounds and music in this world.  

What could have caused it, Sora wondered to himself as he continued to look for whatever had made the sounds.  Just as he was about to take a step down the alleyway to find it, he heard his name being called.  He glanced away to see Harmony a few blocks down, waving for him to catch up.  With one last glance spared to wherever that sound came from, he hurried down the sidewalk to meet up with her.

His shoes hitting the pavement and the distance caused Sora to miss the faint sound of the strange, jangling noise once more.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I decided to break up what would have been the last chapter of this part of the series. I mainly did so because what was going on during it, and how it felt to be all together a little too much for just one chapter. Rushing the end of this part of the series wouldn’t do it any justice really, and I wanted to also give Sora another focused on him chapter where he would explore more about himself, the world, and what he was going to do about still not being able to summon his keyblade. Hopefully, this isn’t too much of a disappointment for you all. If so, don’t worry, the next chapter is currently being written out right now, so it shouldn’t take too long to finish it and have it posted up within the next week or two. I also am probably going to cut out a part of what was planned to make it a certain, smaller fic. Just some more info, before I write the next installment of the series.

_Are you asleep, my darling,  
_ _My little Harmony?  
_ _Does sleep keep you company in the night?  
_ _Are you happy within your beautiful dreams?  
_ _I hope that you are not plagued by fright  
_ _Nor are you lonely and hurting.  
_ _Sleep among the brightness of dreamy sunbeams.  
_ _For you have ahead a splendid Destiny._

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

The next day, after the outing with Harmony around Symposia-Operani, Sora awoke on the air-mattress on the floor of Harmony’s room and felt a little better compared to the previous couple of days.  He had tried harmonizing his heart before falling asleep, humming softly to himself as he focused on the darkness behind his eyelids.  Focusing on harmonizing something he couldn’t quite hear wasn’t the easiest thing to do yet.  Softly, so very softly, he could hear his heartsong deep within his chest.  It was still so very faint and not quite a tune he could focus on to help strengthen.  But that didn’t stop him from still holding to the fact he could hear it and trying to focus on a simple, harmonious tune to help.

He had fallen asleep shortly after doing that.  He figured clearing his mind and relaxing would do that.  Thankfully, there was no Master Yen Sid to kindly berate him when he accidentally would during lessons about history and ancient stuff.  That could put him to sleep too, though to the Master’s displeasure.

But at least this time, falling asleep had led to waking up the next morning feeling less worn out and no headache.  Sora counted that for a win.

He sat up, yawning and stretching his arms up as he continued to wake up even more.  After glancing over to Harmony’s empty bed, he frowned a bit and wondered where she was.  She hadn’t woken him up.  The window was still open, like it usually was, and a gentle breeze trailed in and rustled the windchimes.

The air mattress wasn’t the best support to stand on after standing up, and he had to be careful stepping off so that he didn’t fall or pop it.  The bright yellow sheets on Harmony’s bed were haphazardly tossed back into a somewhat made position.

But where was she?

Sora didn’t hear the sounds coming from adjoined bathroom to her room, so that meant she probably wasn’t up here still.  Maybe downstairs then.  So, he walked the few steps over to the bedroom door, still careful about not stepping on his new friend’s stuff that littered the ground, and opened it to walk out and downstairs to see if he could find Harmony.  Or at least could get an answer where she was at.

Walking into the kitchen provided him still no answers to the whereabouts of his new friend.  Only Melody was in there, cleaning dishes up from a breakfast that he must have slept through.  He really had slept that long?  Well, not that he was really going to complain, since he still didn’t feel any bad effects from it.  The only thing that he still wanted to know was where Harmony was at.  Sora opened his mouth to ask her older sister.

“You just missed her, Sora.  She’s already left this morning.  For school.”

Well, that answered his question, and Sora quickly snapped his mouth shut as he took a free seat at the table and began to pour himself a bowl of cereal from the box that had been left out for him.  He glanced up from finishing pouring to see Melody take a seat across from him after finishing up cleaning the dishes.  She looked bright and cheery this morning.

Her attitude made him feel right at home here.  It was a pleasant feeling, compared to when he had to run around worlds and helping their inhabitants without pause.  It did bring back the soft ache of missing his own mother and family.

“Oh, well, I guess I should have expected that?  I mean, I haven’t been back to school in...a couple of years now.”  Sora chuckled a bit awkwardly, knowing that the reason had been due to the keyblade and the fight against darkness.  It wasn’t as though he could stop helping the light in order to go to high school.  But it did remind him of how not an ordinary life he led.  Different, but definitely not one he would really trade for a plain one.  He met too many friends, had too many adventures, and wound up closer to people because of his adventures.

“Not that I complaining-”  

“Oh really?”

Both stopped talking the moment they realized they had begun to talk at the same time, staring at the other before chuckling.  Sora grinned brightly and began to eat his cereal after pouring the milk into the bowl too.  Melody gave him a soft smile, picking up the teacup in front of her and taking a sip of the steaming liquid.

“After what you told us about your travels, I would imagine there was no time for proper schooling,” Melody commented, humming a bit to herself before frowning somewhat, “though I can’t say that I completely agree with the lack of it.  One should be prepared by teachers to help anticipate further studying.  To be taught how to correctly do something rather than just blind guesses and untrained ways.”

Sora nodded his head; mouth stuffed full with cereal and milk.  Her reasoning was sound for what she believed, though he himself found that there hadn’t been a chance.  No one had really been ready to train him.  So, he did what he could and learned as he went along.  Sora then quickly swallowed the mouthful of food all so that he could answer her back.

“Well, my world doesn’t know about the other worlds.  I do learn from this old wizard named Master Yen Sid, but, for the most part of my training, has been more...learn-as-I-go type of learning. Heh heh.”

Melody nodded her head, even though Sora still felt a bit awkward about having to admit that.  He knew she wasn’t judging him for that, but it still felt a little like he was being judged by the fact that what he learned wasn’t really taught properly to him.  Just what he managed to learn along the way.  Even though she didn’t wield a keyblade, he could tell that she still had studied and practiced her own skills and abilities to master them, like Master Aqua and her friends.

That distinctly reminded of an exam that he had managed to fail.

Sora quickly finished his bowl of cereal and got up from the table.  There were no more words between them as he headed over to the sink.  He could feel Melody’s kind eyes on him as he washed the bowl out and put it up in the drying rack, hoping she wouldn’t ask him any questions.  Thankfully, she didn’t, allowing him to head out of the kitchen with his own thoughts to himself.  He didn’t want to be rude to her, since she was allowing him to stay with them.  Which was why he made sure to thank her for the breakfast and tell her he was going out.

“Thank you, Melody,” he said, giving her a smile from the kitchen doorway, “and I’m going to head out and walk around, try to find some harmony to harmonize myself.”  He quickly gave her a smile before heading down the hallway hopefully before she could ask him something.  Running away, especially from nice people, wasn’t really his style, but this time he felt he could make a bit of an exception.  He wasn’t feeling too great.  He didn’t want his own sour mood to make Melody feel sour too.

As he opened the front door, he could hear Melody’s voice call back from the kitchen at the end the small hallway to ask him, “Do you need someone to help you around?  I can come along with you.  It wouldn’t be any trouble.”

“No!  Don’t worry about me!  I remember what Harmony showed me!” he answered back from the opened front door, soon shutting it behind him as he stepped outside in the fresh air and sunlight of Symposia-Operani.

The town was as bright and merry as it had been the day before.  Nothing appeared to have changed much.  People still walked the streets, talking among those they walked with, or lingered about the terraces and balconies.  The pleasant sounds of birds or musical instruments carried through the air like a constant background song.  It was truly a peaceful place.

Sora took a left from the home he was staying at, walking down the sideway with his hands buried in his pockets.  His thoughts pulled away from failings to try to think more positive thoughts.  Positivity helped more than negativity, he learned among his travels.  Belief in what he knew he could do would solve his problems now and get him home.

_May my heart be my guiding key._

Master Yen Sid’s words echoed in his head and heart.  He focused, allowing his heart to lead his body rather than any thought of destination.  His eyes saw the world around him but really didn’t _see_ it as he focused on what he felt in his chest.  Sora tried to focus on his heart’s power and light.  That was what he always had done before, through the thick and thin of his travels.

_Guide me to where I need to go and what I need to do to help heal myself._

His walking headed down the block and turned the corner to continue on. 

He didn’t know if he would actually be led anywhere around here that would help.  Harmony hadn’t said if there was a significant place around here that might hold the keyhole to this world or something of great power.  Searching for one might help him channel his inner light to summon his keyblade once more.

 _And lead the Heartless to here_ , he thought to himself, footsteps slowing in pace as that thought dropped his (rising) upbeat attitude.   _They fear the keyblade but are still drawn to its light and the light of the worlds.  If this world hasn’t been visited by that darkness, then maybe me being able to summon my keyblade might jeopardize that.  I would endanger everyone here._

“That’s just _great_ ,” he muttered to himself, crossing his arms over his chest as he continued to think over the newest problem in his head as he walked along the sidewalk.

He usually visited worlds that already was being plagued by darkness and heartless.  But he did remember the faint words of Leon back in Traverse Town and Master Yen Sid telling him that the Keyblade was what could draw the darkness to it like honey to flies.  But it was the weapon that could banish that darkness as well.

But that still left the problem that, without being able to summon his keyblade, he couldn’t focus on finding his friends nor could they find him.  If he did manage to summon his keyblade still here, then the heartless could be drawn to this world.  If there was any significant amount of darkness left in the space between worlds after the destined battle.

Sora stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, shoulder dropping low and looking up to the bright blue sky above.  “I’m getting nowhere!”

His voice had been a little louder than he had meant it to be, startling a few people nearby, but the keyblader felt it deeply that he was still without any real answers.  Nearly three years as a keyblade wielder, and he still didn’t know much more than knowing he didn’t know that much about keyblades and their powers.

“I could be in the Sleeping Realm for all I know,” he began talking to himself as he started up walking once more, “or back in time like Xehanort had done.  I just don’t know for sure of anything.”

Sora was so deep in his own thoughts, that he grew unaware of the looks people were giving him.  Or rather, he could feel them, but he figured it was because he was talking to himself as he tried to figure out his problems.  

He didn’t know that it wasn’t quite that.

If he wasn’t so focused on his own thoughts and problems, he would have heard a possibly new problem that followed after him with a jangling tone.  It stepped after him like the beats of footsteps of a duckling after its mother.  The sounds weren’t menacing, just not right to anyone that could faintly hear them.

But Sora was already so focused on his current dilemma to really notice.  The natural sounds of the world distracted him and made him actually grow accustomed to the music.  Almost tuning it out really.

Once he walked a few more blocks of streets did Sora finally hear an odd pitch of noise, almost like a sad ringing of a bell, before silence.  He stopped, glancing around, but saw nothing around him that made that kind of noise.  There was nothing behind him or in front.

“Huh,” he muttered out, not knowing why that sad sound had caught his attention, besides of how much closer it had been compared the other noise.  It was odd; something that made him briefly forget what he had been thinking about and worrying over here in this world.  Sora continued on his small walk around the neighborhood of buildings, wondering what more strangeness that this musical world could hold in store for him.  He almost wished he could hear the noise again to find out where it had come from.

But the strange noise did not sound up again.

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

Sora eventually found a secluded spot, the one from the other day that Harmony had brought him to.  The strange noise still did not start up on his way here, which was a bit of relief.  Maybe it had been just his imagination.  But now, he tried to focus on what he had been trying to focus on since he stepped foot out of his new friend’s house.

The brunet closed his eyes, allowing himself to see the darkness that rested behind his eyelids.  It was the only darkness that did not frighten him, truly.  He then began to focus, focusing on the melody deep in his chest and heart.  It was there, Sora knew that for sure.

A younger Mickey had once asked him in a dream to find a Sound Idea among a world full of music, and he had.

(With the help of Riku, of course.)

Sora shook away those thoughts, knowing that it shouldn’t drag him down.  He continued to sit on the garden bench, breathing in and out in rhythmic pace.

“ _Focus on what you know, explore what you don’t know, let your heart guide you._ ”  Those were words given to him by Master Yen Sid after the Mark of Mastery Exam.  Encouragement the old wizard had told him reminded Sora that he could still do much more if he kept going.  It was reassuring, in the old master’s way of speaking.

“ _I believe in you, Sora.  Always have and will believe in you, just like you have always for me._ ”  Riku’s words pierced through any shadows of doubts that lingered in his mind, reminding him brightly that he could do this.  He could do this, because the other’s had faith in him.  Just like when he went after Master Xehanort to rescue Kairi, Riku had told him he believed in him.  Hearing that made Sora feel like he could, knew that he could.

“Thank you, Riku,” he murmured out softly, telling only the gentle breeze his thanks and wondering if it could deliver that thanks to the other teen.  Riku’s solid belief in him always made him feel so much stronger than he thought he was.  It was incredible really.

Sora then noticed that he had been humming a soft tone.  The moment he did notice that he was and tried to figure the tune out, it faded away.  With its fading, the warmth that had also built in his chest receded slightly away.  A little disheartening to have happen, but it gave Sora some hope that he was on the right path in healing his heart and heartsong.  

His friends, no matter how far away, would help him still, because their hearts were connected to each other.  That was a connection that never could be broken, even with an upset song.

A smile grew on his lips, glancing up to the bright blue sky above and knowing that there were so many stars above this world.  It was one of many, many who shared in the happiness of light and love of all hearts.  That is what he had fought for against a corrupted man and his followers and helped save during that fated battle.  Just knowing what he had managed to do meant that others would get to be free from the corrupting influence of darkness now.

For the first time being here in this world, Sora felt nothing ill in his chest or heart.  He felt truly at peace.

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

“How was the day to yourself?” Harmony asked as she came into her room and landed on her bed with a heavy thump, “Oh, sorry about not telling you that I wouldn’t be here in the morning.  Slipped my mind.  I tried to get out of going, but Melody was all like, “you need to get your proper schooling so that you are prepared for where your heartsong leads you.”  Honestly, it was dull as ever.”  

Sora glanced over to her from his spot at the windowsill, enjoying the breeze that reminded him of home.  He gave her a bright smile, which was returned when she looked to him and soon turned to lay on her side to face him, clearly waiting for him to answer her back.

“It was, calm and enlightening too.”  One of Harmony’s eyebrows went up, making Sora chuckle at the sight.  “I walked around a bit and enjoyed the sights of the town.  Never got to do that that often when I was on my adventures.”

Harmony pushed herself up to sit up completely, facing him still and obviously eager to ask him whatever questions were on her mind.

And ask she did.

“Can you- I mean, did you managed to heal your heartsong?  Does it feel harmonized now?  Can you summon your keyblade?  Can I see it?”

Sora realized then just how young she sounded, asking so many questions that he would have asked in her position.  Even if they were the same age of sixteen, she didn’t share the trials and tribulations that he had.  There was an innocence that he could feel that separated them, but also reminded her of his younger self too.  It was an odd sensation of a thought to feel, really.

“Uh, no, not yet.  For both, I think,” he answered back, holding his hand up and trying to will his keyblade into being.  Nothing appeared after a few seconds.  He lowered his hand once more, frowning a bit and glancing out the window to the sunset lit world outside.

“Oh,” he heard her breathe out, before feeling her move over to sit beside him.  She didn’t mind sharing space, so adapt in being his friend as he was with her.  It was nice, to find such a friend so alike.  “Well, I’m sure in time it’ll happen.  You’ve only been here for a few days now.”

“Yeah,” Sora breathed out, nodding his head a bit and not really thinking that it had even been that long.  It almost felt shorter than that, but she wasn’t wrong.  It had definitely been a few days staying here at her house.

There was a pause from Harmony, before she asked another question to him, “Is this the longest you’ve not been able to summon your keyblade?”

Sora glanced over to her, thinking over her question.  When Riku had taken the keyblade, that had been undetermined amount of time until he had gotten it back.  That was probably the longest, though he really couldn’t have said for how long that had been.  His yearlong sleep didn’t really count either, since he couldn’t do anything.

So, this really was the longest he had not been able to.

“It has,” he nodded his head, before adding a small grin to her when he noticed her beginning to frown at his answer, “but I’m not worried.  I’ll be able to summon it once again.”

Harmony stared back at him, critically looking at him with a gaze that made him want to squirm, before it melted into a kind smile and eyes, “Yeah, I’m sure of that too, Sora.  I believe you can too.”

Just hearing that, believing in her own belief in him, really did help some of the pain and doubts that had tried to fester up then.  She really did.  It was almost like breathing in fresh air, to know that he could.  His doubts and fears couldn’t stand up against one of his friend’s faith in him.  That was his true power after all.  The strength of it all came from those that believed in him, just as he believed in them.

“Thanks, Harmony,” he told her, smiling wider still as she did.  Both of them were happy to know that they could make the other happy.  True friends could do that, they both thought to themselves right then.

There was little to nothing in all the worlds that could crush such belief in friendship like that.

The connections that hearts make were the strongest bonds in all the worlds.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is!
> 
> The final chapter of Nascent Song!
> 
> Woo!
> 
> I am so happy that I finally got this fic done! I wanted to keep writing it, prove to myself that I could write a coherent, multi-chaptered fic once again. And I think I have done it! Of course, this isn't the end of this story just yet! There will be more fics to come in the series, more about Symposia-Operani and Harmony and her family. All will be revealed in time, to help Sora return and help the new world he has found himself in. I hope you all will stick around to continue to read on his adventures. It would really make me happy if you do. Let me know what you think of the story series so far! I would love to hear what you think!
> 
> Also, the song that Orchestra plays within the first part of the chapter is [here!](https://youtu.be/6ugFSCUkw1E) I really only had an idea of what she was playing, so how the rest sounds is up for you all to interrupt. I hope I did it some justice.

**Rise now.**

**Let dreams go.**

**Morning’s awake.**

**Sound softly begins.**

**Echoes all through the day.**

**A symphony for you.**

**The Song slowly fading.**

**Nighttime comes now.**

**Rest awhile.**

**Sleep now.**

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

Sora wondered when this would happen.  

He hadn't known when exactly a nightmare would strike, but that didn’t mean he had easily believed he wouldn’t receive one.  After all that he had been through within just the last week and a half, going from battling the strongest keyblade master ever to being shot through Light knows how much distance in the Other Sky, Sora felt that being surprised by a nightmare would have been silly.  That didn’t mean he had enjoyed it at all.  Honestly, the last time hadn't been so bad, though he had still hadn't been able to do anything about it himself.  Needing help to deal with it wasn't a terrible thing for him.  His friends would help him out if he needed their help, and Sora was always grateful for their help.  But now that it happened, he really wished he wasn't so _alone_.

It was still the middle of the night when he sat up on the air mattress.  The room was dark, with a little light shining in from the seeming always opened window.  Harmony rested on her stomach, face turned towards him and eyes closed.  She looked so peaceful, making Sora feel a little envious that she was.  But he was glad that he hadn't done anything to cause her to wake up. 

Sometimes he would cry out in his sleep or wake up summoning his keyblade, which was when Riku usually knew it had been a bad nightmare.  The other keyblader would them come over to soothe him, remind him that he was there and would protect him.  Sora trusted Riku and would often collapse against him to allow himself to be calmed.

Of course, that had been when they both had been at Master Yen Sid’s tower together.  When apart, so very apart on their separate missions, then the nightmares would have to be swallowed down like big pills without any water.

Just like it was right now.

The bitter taste of dark, creeping fears mixed at the back of his throat with the acidic stung of failure and disappointment.  The potent mix nauseated him to the point where he had to take in deep breaths to fix down the feeling of throwing up.  His focus on keeping himself from vomiting allowed his body to slip into an auto-pilot state and distracted him enough that he hadn’t notice at first.

Sora was up and out of Harmony’s room before his senses came back from the nauseating roll in his stomach.  He softly closed the door until there was only a crack left, and then he moved away from the door.

He hadn’t really meant to get up and wandered about the house at whatever hour it was.  Late, it was still too late to be actually up and walking around.  But Sora felt the repulsion to sleep deep in his core, making him wired and alert without an actual enemy around him.  That was the really worse part of the nightmares, besides the subject of such nightly visions and lingering aftertaste in the back of his throat. 

The humming alertness, anxiety, and just fear of falling back to sleep mixed together into a miasma that lingered about his mind and created an itch to summon his keyblade to due battle with fiends that were only in his mind right now.  But now he couldn’t even do the latter, so it just left a lost sense in him, along with the mess already there.

Socked feet muffed his footsteps down the stairs, allowing him to sneak around like a thief in the night.  But he wasn’t the thief right now, his nightmares were.  The fear, danger, longing ache of familiar comforting help coated his throat like a thick sludge.  He would have thrown up if his stomach didn’t feel like it was tied in a double knot.

When he reached the bottom floor, stopping brief to figure out just what he was going to even do down here instead of trying to get back to sleep, he heard the soft playing of a piano nearby.  Sora glanced around and rounded around the barrister to see where it was coming from.  The sound definitely came from within the house, close by, but a further investigation would be the only way he would find out who was playing.

Sora debated with himself on whether or not he should.  Risks weighed against the results of finding out.

Then he made his decision.

He walked softly and slowly, more like creeping, down the small hallway that led to the front door.  It wasn’t coming from outside of the door nor from the living room to the right.  So, that left one room left where it could be possibly coming from.  He thought that he should have suspected the music room first.  Sleep still clung hard to his thoughts, and fear replayed over and over the darkness of nightmares of insidious nature.

It was a soft song being played.  Nothing too intricate or masterful.  Simply keys being played one after the other like a soothing lullaby.  

It reminded him of a music box his mom got him when he was younger.  Sounding so similar, he would play it over and over when he went to bed.  Only times he wouldn’t was when Riku came over for a sleepover.  Not that he didn’t want his friend to hear it, but because he didn’t need it to fall asleep with the person so dear to him helping him fall asleep.

Sora leaned his back against the wall right next to the opened doorway, listening to the song play out.  Even his breathing had evened out into a steady rhythm that forced a yawn up into his mouth.  His legs locked to keep himself up, because otherwise he would have slide down the wall and sat there until he drifted off to sleep.  It was so peaceful to listen to.

His head swayed from side-to-side, like the rocking of a boat on a gentle sea.  Sometime during that swaying of his head, his eyes had slipped shut to just let him feel the music as he listened.

“ _Sora…_ ”

That was his name, he thought while he still titled his head from one side to the other.

“ _Sora._ ”

A memory flashed to the forefront of his mind.  He was still so little, a kid, laying down in one of the bigger boats that the adults used to fish and sail with.  The wood under his small body wasn’t comfortable by any means, but it was comfort in ways that anyone else would not understand had they not grown up like he did.  His own father was at the helm, while he could feel the wind and cool sea mist kissing his face.  Riku had been leaning against the side, watching the water for dolphins and sharks he had said.  But Sora just bask under the bright sunlight of the afternoon.  It felt perfect.

“ _Sora!_ ”

Sora’s eyes quickly opened and darted around.  He knew he had heard his name being called.  But a quick look around proved that there wasn’t anyone around to have called his name.  Even still, the voice had sounded so familiar.  As though it could have easily been…

“What are you doing up so late, young man?”

Sora nearly jumped out of his skin.  He did, however, quickly push off the wall he still was leaning on and whirl around to face what his body thought was a threat.  All of his instincts were ready for a fight, even without his keyblade.

But the “threat” turned out to be the person who had been playing the piano.

In the silence of the night, Orchestra stood in the doorway of the music room, giving him a look that spoke equal parts curious, confused, and concerned for him being there.  Her arms crossed over the front of her night robe while she waited for an answer.

Both stared at the other for several, long seconds.  The absence of soft piano music made the silence even worse.  

Sora felt his stomach turn over, flushing like a kid again getting caught doing something he shouldn’t have been doing.  “I- uh, couldn’t get to sleep?”  His response was a weak one, especially hammering it home when he ducked his head when the older woman just continued to stare at him like that.  Everyone after a certain age must learn that look, because he had seen it enough times from Master Yen Sid.  “I mean, I woke up and then couldn’t get back to sleep.  So, I decided to get up to tire myself out, and then I heard someone playing- heard you playing.”

Orchestra continued to stand there and stare at him, before she turned without another word and headed back into the music room.  Sora watched her walk further into the room, noticing how she went back to the piano.  There was no light on in the room, leaving it in the dimness of night.  He wondered how she had been playing without really being able to see the piano keys.

“Come in and sit down.”

Sora snapped into action, already walking in when she told him to.  She hadn’t said where to sit, but the look Orchestra gave over her shoulder at him made him wander closer to her.  There was enough room on the piano bench.

“May I?” he asked politely, hoping he wasn’t making a bigger fool of himself in front of her.  When he got a simple nod, Sora sat down at the bench and kept his hands firmly in his lap.  He hoped she didn’t expect him to play it now.

He never learned how to play the piano.  String instruments were more his talent, though he would not say he was a pro at playing one.  Just that he often watched others back on the islands play them and mimicked what he had seen.  Really, his best work often made Kairi grin and Riku laugh lightly like he had told a funny joke instead.

But his worry about being made to play it melted away when she lifted up her hands and began to play the song once more.  

Sora watched her hands only needing to shift slightly in one direction or the other, and fingers lightly pressed down the keys before moving onto the next note with an ease born out of a lot of practice.  Even with her age (not that he would EVER hold that against someone, he knew better), her hands did not falter or stop as she continued to play.  Even in the dark too, they knew where to go like what must have been a thousand times once before.

Orchestra was every bit the piano prodigy that her granddaughter had said she was.  Not that Sora had doubted it at all.

But it wasn’t just how she was able to play in the dark of the night that made him think that.

No, it was the way the music that she created from playing sounded.  He was well-versed in magic and how it felt, even the way it differed sometimes from world to world.  This time, he felt the music drift back into the air with a softness that came with a special talent.  A magic that wasn’t the spark of energy or show, but from within, from the heart.  It held part of Orchestra’s heart, her light, which gave it the softness that he heard up close now.  It made him think back on simpler times on Destiny Islands once more and made him smile as he continued to listen to her.

While she continued to play the soft song, Orchestra began to speak to him, not singing along with the song, “Do you know the story of how everything came to be, Sora?”

The question caught him by surprised.  His peaceful feelings washed away with the oncoming confusion, before he thought of something to tell her.  The truth was that he really hadn’t heard any coherent story of what she asked about.

“Well, I mean, I know what Master Yen Sid told me, and what…” A memory that wasn’t his, a story he had never heard himself but through the memories of a heart within his own.  An older woman who spoke softly, a grandmother too.  “I learned along my travels.  That there was Light first, then the Darkness grew in people’s hearts, which lead to the Light being swallowed up, and the worlds being created and separated.”

Orchestra hummed in response, not giving much away on what that meant.  She went back to play the song, leaving Sora to wonder why he had been asked in the first place.  It had been completely out of, well the dark now for her to ask such a question without prompting _why_.  But to ask her back to find the reason wasn’t something Sora was really inclined to do at the moment.

Just as he was about to slip back into his own thoughts as he went back to listening fully to the music, she began to speak again.  This time, however, it wasn’t just a question or short sentence to answer him back.  In the darkness of the night with a piano playing a soft lullaby of memories, Orchestra’s warm voice wove a story out for him that captured his interest within the first sentence.

“The beginning of everything that ever was and ever is was Silence.  That always had been there, absence of everything that could be.  Just Silence.  

“From that lonely Silence, everlasting, came the first Note -or Noise; whichever you may prefer-.  No one knows why Silence had created the first Sound, but we know that without it, there would have still been just Silence by its lonesome self.  That Sound, along with the lonely Silence, created the first Song.  The Song that would spark creation.  It was creation itself.  Harmony, that’s what they created and were together.  

“But not the only thing.  After the first, melodious Note of Sound ended, then came the Dissonance next.  A discordant Sound that disrupted the flow of the Song of Creation, but it did not silence or stop it.  It, along with Harmony, Sound, and Silence, together continued the Great Song.  For where there is Sound, there is Silence.  For Harmony to be, there must be Dissonance.  That is the music of the universe.  Silence, Sound, Silence.  One cannot just have a perfect Harmony, because there was never a perfect song to begin with.  The Song began imperfectly perfect within two notes, so that we could learn how to create true songs and learn all that we can.”

Orchestra went quiet after speaking so long.  For a moment, there wasn’t a darkened room on one world among many.  There was an all-encompassing feeling that had broken the illusion of being confined to one room.  It felt as though the story had transported him to the beginning of everything.  It was an incredibly frightening feeling, but one that slowly ebbed away as the silence continued.  

No more piano playing nor storytelling, just a quietness.

“That,” Orchestra finally broke her own silence, turning her head to look at him now completely instead of a small glance of her eyes, “is why Music means so much to us.  It teaches us, guides us, to keep the balance within us, within our heartsong.  Without it, well, what would there be?  Just a silence that would make everything seem so quiet and lonely.”

“What about, Light and Darkness?” Sora asked curiously, glancing down to the piano keys.  Now that his eyes had adjusted to the darkness of the room, he could see where the ivory-colored keys fit against the ebony-colored parts.  A pair for each.

“Well,” Orchestra muttered, humming a bit more as she thought over her answer, “suppose they are one in the same to Sound and Silence.  Don’t you think?”  Sora glanced up from keys back to her, seeing her look at him with a soft expression on her face.  As though he was like her one of her own grandchildren.  “One cannot be without the other.  Always a pair together.”

Sora supposed that made sense, however Orchestra wasn’t done speaking about it, “But, really, I am not a philosopher or priestess.  That was what I was taught.  And none of those teachings covered young men from other worlds with unbalanced heartsong.”  She reached up to gently and quietly shut the fallboard over the piano keys.  Those same fingers that had produced a sweetly, soft song and weathered with age gently traced absent patterns over the dark wood of the top of the fallboard.

It took Sora a moment to pass to realize that the absent swirling patterns that would bounce from one finger to another was Orchestra playing the song once more without the piano.  She continued to play out the whole song in silence against the polished surface until her fingers came to a rest flat against it.  The silence in that span of time wasn’t oppressing, even compared to the previous enveloping song.

The silence simply had just been, just as there had been sound when she played.

“Madam Orchestra,” Sora found his voice in the silence now, even if his tongue felt thick in his mouth.  It was like his tongue was keeping him from ruining how quiet it was now.  But he needed to ask her what was on his mind now.  “Is there a way to fix this?”  He pressed his hand against his chest, even though he was sure that she already knew what he was referring to.  “Fix my heartsong from being so dissonant.  There has to be.  Right?  If there is both harmony and balance and everything?  I just, feel so lost at what to do about it.  I’ve been trying so hard lately, to do as Harmony and Melody have said to do and harmonize it, but nothing seems to fully work to do it.”

His eyes dropped away from her own when admitting such a failure, and his throat burned to get out more words to soothe such an ache.  

The same failing feeling had sunk its claws into him after Master Yen Sid had dismissed them after the exam.  Sora had gone to find somewhere to process what had happened.  He managed to find a secluded spot in the magical tower, letting the pain and frustrations out as it felt like he wasn’t and would never be good enough.  It always had felt that way, but now-

But then Riku had managed to find him, softly kneeling in front of him and looking at him as though he was looking directly at his heart.  Sora knew the other could see his watery eyes and wanted to scrub them away.  But he didn’t move as Riku stayed right there.  Then the other reached forward to pull him into a hug and rest their foreheads together, not saying a word as he did.

Then he said softly, just between them and their hearts, “ _You are the strongest person I know, no matter what happens._ ”

“I’m a retired concert pianist.  Not a healer.”  Orchestra’s voice snapped Sora away from the past, feeling a dull ache in his chest at where he was now instead of there.  With Riku, their friends and everyone who had counted on him to come back with Kairi instead of being lost- “But, I am not so cruel to think there is not for your case.  A strong young man, such as yourself, has an equally strong heartsong and heart.  It would be foolish for anyone to doubt that.”

Sora knew his eyes were stinging with tears.  He could feel them; therefore, he didn’t want to look up at Orchestra.  Apparently, he didn’t have to look at her, because she was moving to get up after telling him that.  He felt her hands pat his back softly, resting there.

“Sometimes when we miss someone very much or our loved ones are gone, our hearts become dissonant, and it can be so very hard to heal.  That doesn’t mean the song in our hearts has stop.  Trust in your heartsong to keep singing.”

With her final words, her soft footsteps against the floor grew softer the more she walked away, leaving him alone and still sitting on that piano bench.

Her words lingered in his mind and heart, repeating over and over, along with other precious memories.  Like the soft song she had been playing, it made him remember the past and everything that he had learned.

He knew deep down in his heart that he would find a way to fully harmonize his heart and return back to the people that made his heart really strong.  That was a promise he knew he could never give up on.

Sora then got up, feeling more resolute than he had been when he walked down those stairs, and began to make his way back through the dark home and back up to Harmony’s room.  There was still a quietness in the house like a soft blanket of comfort rather than oppressive weight.  Not even the dark shadows in the corners of the rooms felt worrying to him as he made his way up the wooden stairs and slowly, quietly back into the room.

Sora nudged the door open first, hoping to keep Harmony from waking up.  There was still a lump on the bed under the thick comforter, meaning Harmony was still asleep.  Good, Sora was relieved he hadn’t woken her up.

He stepped inside of the room and shut the door behind his back.  He took a few steps over to the air mattress, carefully keeping his eyes on the floor to make his way over to it.  When he did glance up, he noticed that Harmony’s sleeping face wasn’t facing him now.

 Appearing she had curled herself into a tight ball, Harmony now faced away with her back to the room.  Sora thought it made her look so very small, even though they were roughly the same size for the most part.  Harmony only shifted on her bed when the soft twinkling of the windchimes started up with a new, gentle breeze entered the room.

Sora didn’t stare long, kneeling back down to laid down on the air mattress to hopefully get some more sleep tonight.  His mind, even though it had been filled with so much new information of the story and encouragement, was oddly relaxed and at peace.  It felt like the gentle rocking of the waves, the way that Riku fluidly moved in practice sparring, and a calm peace that Kairi often demanded when she wanted to read.

He felt at harmony with himself now as he slipped his eyes shut with a soft smile on his face and let his dreams take him away.

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

“Sing something from the heart, Sora!  Let’s see what your inner melody will produce!  I’m sure that it will be a lovely song, something you want to sing.”

“O-oh, well, um…”  Sora knew he should have not sat down on the piano bench when Melody suggested for him to.  Because now she was telling him that he should sing something now, which felt more embarrassing than when Sebastian, a crab, had asked him to sing to gauge his abilities.  That hadn’t felt as nerve-racking as it did now.  His wide gaze shifted from Melody, seated next to Symphony on the couch, to her grandmother-in-law in a plush armchair right next to her.

“I can help,” Harmony then made her way over to the piano bench from where she had been perched on one arm of the couch, “Scoot over.”

Harmony took the rest of the room on the bench and sat properly at the piano.  It was a bit of a tight fit on the bench, their shoulders bumping, but neither of them was bothered by it.  Harmony knocked her shoulder lightly against Sora’s, chuckling as she did.  Sora turned around to be facing the same way she was now and grinned back as he did the same.  

He could hear the grin in Symphony’s voice from behind them as she questioned them, “Alright, thought you two were going to sing?  Are you going to make us wait forever for that?”

Harmony waved her hand above her shoulder.  “Non, Maestra!”  Harmony then put her hand down, just barely touching the piano keys.  She gave Sora a quick glance, before he nodded his head for her to start playing.

It started slow before turning into a more whimsical melody.  The song made him smile more by just how much fun it sounded.  He began to bob his head to the beats, still not really knowing just what to sing yet.  

Just as he was to ask about a suggestion, Harmony began to sing next to him.  Her words matched to the beats, as if she had sung something to this song already.  It was a little reassuring that she had, so that maybe he wouldn’t feel so lost as he listened along.  

Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed that she was looking to him with a bright grin on her face as she sang along as she played.

“ _...This is a song to sing  
_ _A simple little melody  
_ _It takes no rhyme or reason  
_ _Just to simply be…_ ”

While still playing the piano, Harmony looked to Sora then, giving him a nod for him to sing something now.  Of course, he still felt a little lost as to what to sing next after her start of the song.  So, he repeated her little song as well. 

“ _...This is a song to sing  
_ _A simple little melody  
_ _It takes no rhyme or reason  
_ _Just to simply be…_ ” 

He noticed how the bright grin on Harmony’s face grew even bigger.  Both glanced back down to the black and white keys, and together they began to sing in harmony with the other.  Nothing or no one else mattered to them at the moment, just the other that sang in unison.

“ _A song, a melody  
_ _Together with me  
_ _Let’s sing together  
_ _For I’d rather sing together with you~!_ ” 

Drawing out the last word for a little flourish for the end of the impromptu song earned them soft clapping from their small audience behind them.  Both glanced over their shoulders and flashed bright grins at the three adults.  All three looked like they had enjoyed hearing the music that had been created by them both in unison.  Sora couldn’t help feeling like he had finally done something right here, even though it was just simply singing with Harmony.

“Wonderful, little song that was!” Melody complimented, eyes twinkling with mirth and joy like stars in the night sky.  Symphony nodded her head as well and held a proud look in her eyes.  Her hand then slipped down to lace with one of Melody’s in her lap.  

Symphony then glanced to her wife with a new look in her eyes before back at the two teens.  “Indeed.  If I didn’t know more about you two, I would think you were songmates with how well you harmonized together like that.  Usually only couples well in love could be able to sing something like that.”  She lifted up the hand of Melody’s that she was holding, bringing it to her lips to brush a kiss against the knuckles, staring now at her wife with such burning love, “I remember when Melody and I first sang together.”

Sora didn’t know exactly what that word, “songmate” meant (he didn’t know what a lot of words used in this world meant, but he was learning), but the flushed cheeks and sharp look directed at Symphony from Harmony kind of clued him in to what it meant.  There was a bit awkwardness to how there was a hint of an implicit relationship when there wasn’t one there.  They were only friends, who had only known each other for a week.  Not that Sora hadn’t seen love form faster than that, but this wasn’t the case for himself.

“Of course, we’re not, Symph’!” Harmony snapped back, turning back towards the piano keys.  Her fingers hovered over them, twitching in aborted movements and never really playing anything.  Her eyes shifted this way and that over the keys, looking lost as she did.

Sora knew his heart well now.  Harmony was a new friend, nothing more to that.

He also felt bad that she had been embarrassed, feeling a little himself as well.  Not that he actually believed that Melody and Symphony were implying anything, since he was staying in _Harmony’s_ room while he was here.  His own mother hadn’t allowed even Kairi to stay alone over after they all had hit puberty, and the mayor had told that Riku and he couldn’t after a certain time.  So, implying to be “songmates” felt more of a jab at Harmony rather than him.  Which still wasn’t right for them to do in the first place.

He continued to watch Harmony as she began to press a few keys, soft presses for the beginning of a simple melody.  At first, it appeared that she had gone over the tease from the adults, but then one harsh note, pressed down harder the previous ones, halted the song entirely.

Harmony stared down at the keys, frowning deeper by the second the sound drew its life out before quieting.  Once everything fell silent, she got up from the bench without touching another piano key.  There was a tense air around her.  She didn’t stare Sora a look before rounding around the bench and heading towards the doorway.

“‘M done,” she muttered on her way out, staring straight ahead as she left.  Her shoulders were hunched forward, tense and almost prepared for a fight.

Sora watched her walk out of the small piano room with a sad frown.  Heavy footfalls then moved up the stairs right above the music room, telling them all where she had gone to.  He stared up at the ceiling, wondering how she was really feeling, and felt in his heart the empathy for how she must not be feeling at all good.  His eyes dropped down to the piano keys, staring absently at them as he wondered if it would be good to go check up on her or not.  Did he know her enough to comfort her?  Or would it be better to let her be alone?  Sora hated how he really didn’t know, but what he did know was that she hadn’t deserved that kind of teasing.

“So moody she has been lately, hasn’t she?” Orchestra commented nonchalantly from her spot, reaching for the book on the small end table next to the armchair.  Her eyes flickered over to her granddaughter, meeting the gaze sent her way, before looking down at the book as she opened it.  Nothing suggested the older woman was bothered by what she was saying.

“It has gotten worse, hasn’t it?”

Sora felt a rising, sour taste in his mouth as Melody talked about her sister like that.  Adults that talked like they knew better really was one of the few things that really made him upset.  His own parents had acted that way when he returned and tried to explain that he had changed when he came back.  But, even if they loved him since he was their child, the way his mother and father softly dismissed his worries, fears, and new-found responsibilities, Sora knew he couldn’t remain there on the islands.  Not with them, just visited with Riku whenever they got the chance.

When the conversation about Harmony didn’t stop after her exit, Sora quickly got up from the bench and excused himself.  Excusing himself without even looking at the others in the room.  Hoping they understood what they had done wrong, he made his way out of the room and away from them.  Sora decided that Harmony would need some friendly company after that.  No doubt in his mind anymore, a choice had been made with his heart guiding him along.

The feeling in his chest that drove him up the stairs and towards her room felt like an unknown and unfinished song, the best analogy he could think of as he continued spending time here in this world.

At the top of the stairs, he saw that Harmony’s door was shut.  There were no sounds coming from beyond it, which highlighted how wrong everything felt right now.  Distantly, a conversation between Melody, Symphony, and Orchestra continued.  But there was no sound from Harmony within her room.  Sora hesitated in front of the door as he noticed more and more about the quietness.  Finally, he couldn’t stand not doing anything and knocked twice.  He wanted to help her, instead of making her feel worse, and knew that he would have to not let his own trepidation stop him from doing that.  Hesitating never helped in a fight or when things got hard.  One step forward at a time.

“Harmony?”

“Go away!”

Both of them had spoken at the same time, oddly enough.  Sora winced when he heard the voice snap at him, doubting it had been really at _him_.  At least, he hoped she wasn’t mad at him.  But that still didn’t stop his face from falling a bit, and his resolve to help her grow weaker by the second.

Knowing not to press his luck too much -mostly when Riku and he had grown up and gotten into arguments, when the other would give him the silent shoulder until they both were ready to talk it out-, Sora turned around to head back downstairs.  Not that he would go rejoin those that were still in the music room, but he knew he could find somewhere to go else.  Until Harmony wanted to speak with him again. 

Just as he took a step away, the door behind him opened up with a creaking sound.

“Sora?”  Her voice, though soft, scratched with a roughness of heavy emotions.

He turned to face her, giving her a soft smile when he noticed that she was not looking as bright as she had been when they had sung together.  Harmony had taken the words thrown at her so carelessly hard.

“Hey, I just wanted to-” As Sora spoke, Harmony took a step back into her room, moving out of the way and gesturing for him to come into her room.  Sora gladly took the invitation, continuing what he had been saying as he walked into her room.  “-see if you were alright.  I mean, it wasn’t very nice of them to embarrass you like that.  Not about matters of the heart.”

Harmony shut the door after he came in and stepped past him and the pile of what was his sleeping arrangements on the ground next to her bed.  No words given back to him, just a silence that spoke enough for her.  After climbing into her own bed, Harmony drew her knees as close to her chest as she could and wrapped her arms around them.  Her chin sat on top of them like the peak of a lonely mountain.  After he noticed a frown on her face and met her sad gaze, her dark eyes darted away from his and out the ever-opened window.

Not really the best signs for him to keep speaking altogether, but Sora did so anyway.  The silence unnerved him like a persistent itch or the feelings of creeping darkness.

So, he took a step over, careful not to rush her, and asked softly, “Are you okay?”

Her eyes continued to stare out the window as though she hadn’t heard him in the first place.  The breeze drifting by the window played with her loose strands of brown hair hanging down.  Seconds passed like that, her pulled together in a small form and quiet and him not knowing what else to ask her as he stood in her room.

“I suppose it is easy for them to tease when they know in their heartsong what is.  But…”  Sora noticed that one of her hands had dropped down from her leg and was clenching hard at the comforter beneath her.  “...it isn’t like that for some of us.  For some of us, our heartsongs are not so to listen to, to know how the song goes to continue it.”  

While she answered his question, Sora took the last few steps over to be able to softly sit onto her bed.  That was when she finally looked at him as well.  He saw the sadness and frustration in her brown eyes.  He hated seeing any friend upset.  But there was a part of him that felt lost on the waves.  A feeling, he though, that Harmony might be feeling at this moment now too.

“Nothing has...stuck with me.  What to do, obviously.”  She waved her hand to gesture about her room, still a little messy even with him sleeping in here now.  But Sora knew what she was gesturing at really rather than just the mess.  The art and music, separate and combined, didn’t appear to be quite in…harmony.

“Well maybe, it’ll still take time or surprise you when you are able to really hear it.  Something similar is what happened with me and the keyblade.  When I really needed it, it appeared in my hand.”

Of course, it had been a great surprise to him when he had been able to summon it and lead down a path that caused him to end up here on this world.  But that is how his path lead him.

Harmony, however, shook her head at his answer instead.  “That’s not, what I meant.  Not really, not that I don’t believe you, Sora.  But...what about you?”

Sora titled his head a bit in a confused manner.  He didn’t hear a condescending tone in her question.  He watched Harmony shake her head and deeply exhale through her nose when he didn’t answer her back.

“Sora, it’s been a week.  Has anything…”  She held out her hand and wiggled her fingers.  It took a second to realized she meant summoning he keyblade.  “...felt different?”

Sora shook his head, keenly reminded of the heaviness of disappointment in his own heart.  “Not really.”  His voice had come out heavier than he had meant it to, because Harmony looked guilty then.

“Oh.  Well, sorry I brought it up.  I didn’t mean to drag you into the downer funk that I’m in.”

“No, no it’s fine,” he shook his head, knowing that really it wasn’t her fault that he couldn’t or her fault for feeling so bad, “I mean, not really.  But…”

Both fell into silence between them.  Neither of them really didn’t know what else to say to the other after that.  Seconds faded into minutes of quietness, but there was a softness that was returning between them that wasn’t filled with hurt or disappointment.  The longer they sat there in each other’s company, the less they felt bad about themselves.  Slowly, the ache ebbed away from their hearts.

“Heartsongs aren’t so easy to listen to, huh?”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Harmony agreed with him, nodding her head and finally smiling now, “At least, I know that I'm not alone.”

It felt great hearing that, Sora noticed.  Not in the shared pain and not knowing, but the fact that they could relate to each other and help.  Even simply talking to each other had helped.  Sora then smiled at her, warmth shining bright from it like the afternoon sun.  Her own smile, small as it was, grew like a flower to bloom under the bright sunlight.

“And I don’t think it’ll stay that way.  Just have to hope and keep believing in our hearts.”  Sora raised up his hand to place against his chest, feeling the steady rhythm beneath his fingers.  

Harmony mirrored that action with that bright grin on her own lips.  It felt like when the storm clouds finally parted for the sun to shine after a storm.  A relief that bad things were currently over and done with, allowing them to enjoy the happiness together.

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

Later that night, several hours after they both were sure that the others had gone to bed, Sora and Harmony snuck out of her room and headed back downstairs.  It really hadn’t been either one of their ideas, just something that spurred them both on together.  Like they had known what the other was thinking and followed through without needing really a plan on what they were doing.  Both felt the thrill of sneaking around the dark house, though.  Sora had already known that feeling from the previous night, and he had a feeling like this wasn’t the first time for Harmony either.

“Shush, keep quiet,” Harmony whispered to him, creeping carefully down the stairs in the dead of the night.  Sora followed after her back a step or two, wearing a bit of a grin on his face.  This felt so familiar that he couldn’t count the times Riku and he had snuck out when they were kids.

But Harmony wasn’t leading him out the front door.

Once on the bottom floor of the small house, she waited with absolute stillness and stared hard at the closed door just directly across from the bottom of the stairs.  Sora waited as well, still a couple of steps up the stairs.  There was still the quietness of a sleeping household, which relieved them both.  Then Harmony rounded around the stair railing and headed down the hallway to slip into the music room.  Sora was right behind her.

Quickly but quietly, they took their seats once more at the piano bench.  Harmony opened up the fallboard with a grin on her face that was starting to worry Sora.

“Won’t they-”

“Shh,” she shushed him, holding a finger up to her lips, “they won’t wake up.  The room is soundproof.” 

Sora couldn’t let go of the tension in his shoulders, watching still as she put the fallboard up and resting her fingers barely against the tops of the piano keys.  He trusted her word, but he also didn’t want to wake up the whole household with Harmony playing.  He had only seen her playing the happy song earlier, and Orchestra, the night before, had been playing a softer song than that.  So, his guess on how this would end up was not allowing him to let go of his worries.

But then Harmony pleasantly surprised him when she began playing a soft song on the piano that was like the one Orchestra had been playing.  It wasn’t the same song, but it had the similar gentleness that melted his worries of getting caught away.  After dropping his shoulders, he turned his head to the side to give her a soft, slightly apologetic smile for doubting her.

Instead of smiling back, Harmony closed her eyes as she continued to play and soon opened her mouth to begin to sing softly along with the piano.

_Sing for me  
_ _For our heartsongs are in tune  
_ _The world is our stage  
_ _And we cannot be so silent_  

Sora had a feeling that this song that Harmony was singing wasn’t like the song they had sung before.  That impromptu one didn’t hold a candle to the feeling these soft lyrics were invoking.  His heart could even feel the light of power from them.  

A soft ache, a calling to someone missing, Harmony continued to sing as she played the piano to her song.

_Sing for you_  
_That you may never forget_  
_I will always be there  
_ _And I will sing with you always_

Sora couldn’t help himself.  He began to sing along, trailing after the lyrics she sang.  He may not know the song, but he couldn’t help singing along with her and adding his voice.  Her brown eyes flickered open and over to him, but they shined with a happiness that almost felt too much to give to him.  But that didn’t stop him as he continued along with her. 

He really didn’t notice just how much they sang in perfect harmony together, just enjoying that he was doing it with his newest friend.

_Sing for them_  
_They will love to hear you_  
_Their heartsongs will be with you  
_ _And you will sing with them too._

Harmony pressed a few more piano keys after she fell silent, letting the sounds drift away into the night.  Sora couldn’t look away from how happy she looked.  Her whole face looked like it had never seen a day of sadness right now.  He couldn’t believe he had managed to help her feel so much better, but he was glad he had.  Helping her felt good, felt right.  His own heart felt lightened, burning with a strong warmth. 

“Harmony, that was-”

“Sora, I didn’t know-”

They stopped speaking once they had realized they had been speaking over the other again and began to softly laugh.  They continued on laughing softly and leaned against each other.

As the laughter died down, they still remained pressed shoulder-to-shoulder.  Neither made a move to move away, enjoying how nice it felt to be next to someone they were lucky to be called a “friend.”  Even the quietness around them could have easily be considered a friend as well, blanketing them in comfort as they continued to sit there.

“Thank you, Sora.”

Sora didn’t know what she was thanking him for, watching the tips of her fingers drift softly over the tops of the piano keys without pressing down.  But he was glad that he had managed to do something for her, even if he didn’t know what it had been.  It made a warmth rise up more and more, reaching up with one of his hands to rest without pressing down on the keys next to her hand.

Their hands stayed like that, almost touching but not.

That was, until Harmony moved her hand just enough to brush her pinky against Sora’s.  It was the softest touch, barely even one at all.

But it was enough.

A flash of light came over the piano keys, blinding them both and nearly caused them both to topple back over.  Sora stuck out his arm in front of Harmony, blocking whatever might happen to hurt her.  However, he didn’t feel any dark presence now, just a bathing warmth that was uniquely familiar to him after these couple years.

But once they blinked enough to get the spots out of their visions, they couldn’t stop staring in wordless wonder what rested on the piano keys now.  It was a-

“Is that...a keyblade?  Your keyblade?” Harmony got out, after pulling her mouth up from hanging wide open.  Her eyes traced over the intricate design, as well as Sora’s too.

“This isn’t- I mean,” he began to explain, reaching out to pick it up and hold it up to get a better look at it in the dark room, “it is a keyblade, but not the one I usually have.”

The keyblade’s design made him think of Symposia-Operani in probably the middle of summer.  A mixture of soft blues that melted into bright oranges faded down a winding patchwork down the middle like the cobblestone roads outside.  Leading up the path to the top was an odd sight of sideways windchime, just like one that hung in Harmony’s bedroom window.  Down at the bottom was a hilt made up of piano keys that ended at the very bottom with a chain with a music note, a treble clef.

“Oh, well then,” Harmony muttered, looking to Sora once she was done with studying the keyblade, “better than nothing, right?”  A grin, reassuring him, came over her lips, and she shrugged her shoulders since she really didn’t know how any of this went.  But she did look happy for him that this had occurred.

Sora glanced to her and then back down to this blade, _Musical Union_.  It was -she was right- a good start.  A very unexplained start, but one that meant something great, he hoped.  It meant he could still summon keyblades, at least that is what he hoped.  It was still strange that it wasn’t his _Kingdom Key_ , but he knew he should just be relieved he could summon one at all.  

“Yeah, you’re right,” he nodded his head, holding tight to the handle and feeling a flow of warmth of Light from the keyblade to his heart.  Definitely a sign that good was to come now.  _Musical Union_ faded in a shower of soft sparks of light and the twinkling sounds, disappearing but not gone.  Light filled in his chest, where he could feel this new keyblade rest for when he would need to summon it again.

He had a keyblade now.  

His heart had summoned a keyblade to him!  

With the help of Harmony, of course.  He couldn’t forget that factor too.  But it still meant that he could summon a keyblade, that his heart wasn’t trapped away from the Light.  He was somewhere where Light could still reach him and not in some dark abyss or part of a sleeping realm.  An over-flowing joy started to fill his chest faster and faster, making him feel giddy and light as a feather.

Sora couldn’t stop grinning at Harmony, who was grinning right back at him.  He definitely felt that he was on the right path now with her help.  His friends, after all, was his source of Light and power.  He had never forgotten that.

 

**~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

“My, my, this is a strange little creature you have dragged here.  I would have thought dealing with enough poisoned and disrupting _scum_ would have kept you from wanting to deal with anything else. 

The person speaking stood before an hourglass-shaped, glass pod, where inside was a dark creature with bright yellow eyes.  It slashed at the glass, making no marks against the glass nor no sounds as well.  The person, who looked so bored with just staring at the feral creature, turned away to look at the other standing nearby in the same room.  The laboratory-like room lay shrouded in a dimness and an eerie quiet that a drop of a needle could easily disturb.

“It appeared when I was out hunting,” the other figure, the hunter of something, answered back with an almost bored tone of voice.  Their arms, bandaged heavily, sat crossed over their broad chest.  “Figured it would be something of interest for you.  I can get rid of it, if you want.”

“No, no,” the scientist answered back, waving their hand, “it may prove useful to us.  If it appeared, along with the Dissonance, then maybe it can be helpful in _exterminating_ those vile things, once and for all.”

The hunter didn’t look impressed with what the scientist was saying, taking just a few heavy footsteps over to the glass tube holding the weird but vicious dark creature inside of it.  The yellow, glowing eyes locked onto the hunter’s movements, now focused on trying to break the glass to attack them.  All the hunter did was snort and scowl at the pitiful attempts it was making.

“It attacked someone, before I managed to nab it.  Terrible thing really, since the poor woman didn’t stand a chance.  Just… “poofed,” vanished, with a loud racket of Dissonance as well.”

The scientist hummed out, reaching up to tuck a stray piece of hair that had fallen out from behind one of their ears.  They continued to stare at the odd creature, valuing what use it could be to their cause.  However, that new information from the hunter did make things a bit more interesting for what they were doing.  Very interesting indeed.

“Well then,” the scientist began, a strange grin stretching across their lips, “I may need more of these creatures to test with.  To see if they really can be of use to our great Harmonizing plan.”  They then glanced over to the hunter with a bored look in their eyes.  “Go get me some more of these creatures.”

The hunter scowled even further, though they did not look to the scientist.  They just kept staring at the dark creature, watching its movements and wondering what it was.  What did it think like?  All of those questions flashed through the hunter’s mind, but they did not disobey the scientist’s orders.  They turned away and began walking out, leaving the scientist to turn back to stare at their new experimental project.

“Very curious indeed, little disruptions you are.”


End file.
